Download a sense of belonging open ended questionnaire
This recently-developed instrument (Ahn, 2017) uses an open-ended question to engage students by writing down up to 10 words when they consider their sense of belonging to Imperial College London. This allows students to actively describe their thoughts related to their sense of belonging at Imperial, and the simple wording of the question keeps the mind free from prejudice, stereotypes, and preconceptions.
As with the questionnaire scales that we suggest in other parts of this toolkit, you can adapt this tool to focus on your specific module, course, or department. Simply enter the name of your course or department where it says “Imperial College London” in this example. Similarly, if you are interested in another topic, such as well-being, inclusivity, or agency, you can enter in that topic where it says “belonging” here below.
References
Ahn, M. Y. (2017). Sense of Belonging as an Indicator for Social Capital: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Students’Sense ofBelonging to University. Prifysgol Bangor University.