Strategies for Efficacy and Belongingness towards Foundational STEM Skills for At-Promise Graduate Students: The QMER learning community

This paper reports on the findings of implementing a learning community in a flagship Southeastern University over the past four years to improve graduate student research efficacy and social belongingness. Specifically, the learning community program was aimed at (1) broadly supporting foundational STEM skills through supplementary and specialized curriculum; and (2) providing social and professional supports geared towards at-promise and international students. Survey and interview results demonstrate that graduate students participating in the learning community reported improved senses of self-efficacy, inclusivity, and belongingness. In addition, low income, first-generation, and Black graduate students reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy and belongingness. This paper concludes that the learning community approach can be highly beneficial in developing research efficacy across the board, but at-promise students specifically benefit from professional skills development to undergird and contextualize their research confidence.