2026-10-14T10:20:41Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34009395 2026-09-28T05:39:06Z category_129 portal_316 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Data Sheet 1_Social belonging and academic mindset affect student performance in an introductory biology course at a two-year college.pdf Hector L. Torres (25119975) Vanessa Johnson-Ojeda (5433107) Melissa E. Hardy (25119978) Regina F. Frey (2066512) Education academic mindset access-oriented institutions introductory biology social belonging STEM higher education Introduction<p>Access-oriented institutions serve increasingly diverse student populations and play an important role in broadening participation in STEM. However, relatively little research has studied how affective factors contribute to student success in introductory STEM courses, specifically Introductory Biology, within these settings. This study examined how the affective constructs of social belonging (sense of belonging and belonging uncertainty) and academic mindset (entity and incremental beliefs) relate to student performance in Introductory Biology at a U.S. two-year institution.</p>Methods<p>Survey and exam data were collected across 16 course sections (N = 310). Theory-driven hierarchical and multiple regressions models, controlling for academic preparation, were used to examine relationships among affective variables and performance. Because these affective variables are underexplored in these contexts, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted and supported the expected two-factor structures for both measures. Nontraditional status was operationalized using a nontraditional index by Horn and Carroll, a multidimensional measure capturing characteristics such as age, enrollment pathway, employment, caregiving, and financial independence.</p>Results<p>As is common in STEM courses, prior content knowledge was the strongest and most consistent predictor of exam performance. Results revealed a time-specific recursive pattern between performance and belonging: early-semester belonging did not predict midterm performance, but midterm scores predicted late-semester belonging, which subsequently predicted final exam outcomes. Early-semester academic mindset also contributed modestly to performance, with entity beliefs negatively predicting both midterm and final exam scores and incremental beliefs positively predicting midterm performance. Exploratory analyses further indicated that sense of belonging and entity mindset each explained unique variance in final exam performance after accounting for academic preparation.</p>Discussion<p>Together, these findings suggest that social belonging and academic mindset represent complementary affective factors associated with student success and that students' perceptions of belonging may become increasingly important following evaluative feedback. These results extend prior findings from chemistry and physics to introductory biology. They also highlight the potential value of instructional practices that promote supportive feedback, adaptive study strategies, and fostering inclusive, growth-oriented learning environments may help students interpret academic challenges productively and support positive belonging trajectories.</p> 2026-09-28T05:39:06Z Dataset Dataset 10.3389/feduc.2026.1825440.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Data_Sheet_1_Social_belonging_and_academic_mindset_affect_student_performance_in_an_introductory_biology_course_at_a_two-year_college_pdf/34009395 CC BY 4.0