Does a sense of belonging increase for students after an outdoor education residential program?

Does a sense of belonging increase for students after an outdoor education residential program?

Analysis of the Pymble Ladies’ College Vision Valley residential program, 2022 to 2024

What impact does the four-week residential program held for Year 9 students at Pymble Ladies’ College at Vision Valley make on students’ sense of belonging? The program takes place during the critical period of mid-adolescence. Research shows that schools play an important role in ways young people develop a sense of belonging amongst their peers and in their community, and that individuals who feel accepted, liked and connected to others have more positive academic and developmental outcomes (Goodenow, 1992; Cemalcilar, 2010). This research summary explores whether the outdoor education residential program in our school context improves students’ sense of belonging, being their connection to peers and to school.

ADAMOVICH AND DR SARAH LOCH

VICTORIA

Does a sense of belonging increase for students after an outdoor education residential program?

INTRODUCTION

This research focuses on the Sense of Belonging measure extracted from data from student participants in Pymble Ladies’ College’s Year 9 Vision Valley Residential Program (VVRP). Since the commencement of the VVRP in 2022, the Pymble Institute has administered a questionnaire to students which has included a set of questions about feelings of belonging amongst the peer group and connections with school. Students’ sense of belonging to school is defined by the OECD Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) (OECD, 2019, p. 130) as ,‘how accepted, respected and supported students feel in their social context at school … [including related concepts of] school connectedness, school attachment, school engagement, school identification and school bonding’. We are interested in understanding the impact the VVRP makes on students’ sense of belonging during the period of mid-adolescence.

Research asserts that, ‘school is an important developmental context for

children, and a sense of belonging at school appears to be a crucial factor in promoting more positive academic and developmental outcomes’ (Fabrice, Settani, Longobardi & Marengo, 2023, p. 1).

We agree with the definitions used by other researchers who explore the features of ‘psychologically healthy environments for development’ (Baker, Dilly, Aupperlee & Patil, 2003, p. 206), including, ‘being in a safe educational context, characterized by positive relationships, where [students] can express themselves without fear of rejection’ (Fabrice et al., 2023, p. 1) and, ‘feeling safe to be yourself in and through relationships with others in the school setting’ (Craggs & Kelly, 2018, p. 1411).

The Pymble Institute’s research into this aspect of the residential program is assisting colleagues who lead the Upper School (Year 9 to 10) and Vision Valley programs to understand how students’ sense of belonging is impacted by the four-week outdoor education residential experience. Along with other colleagues, we continually inquire into how College

initiatives can further improve connectedness, belonging and community amongst students with the goals of better academic and wellbeing outcomes. In relation to the Vision Valley program, data and analysis are regularly used to understand the needs of each cohort and adapt the VVRP accordingly, as well as to explore medium and longterm issues and trends.

RESEARCH CONTEXT

This project is part of a broader suite of research into the Vision Valley Residential Program. This includes co-designed research undertaken with academics from the School of Education at Western Sydney University (WSU). The WSU team produced a formal report, commissioned by the College, completed in 2023. A summary is available through the Pymble Institute

During the co-design phase, research instruments were established which have helped create baseline data and inform the design for future programs.

The survey instruments, including the Sense of Belonging measure underpinning this current research, were created by the authors of the original research report.

THE VISION VALLEY RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM: 2022 - 2024

Commencing in 2022, the Vision Valley Residential Program (VVRP) has now taken over 300 girls and around 170 boys through a four-week, full time, residential program rich in outdoor education and experiential learning opportunities. Students spend a month in the beautiful outdoor setting of Vision Valley, Arcadia, New South Wales, located forty-five minutes from the College’s main campus in the north shore of Sydney. Students experience a range of activities including communal living, experiential outdoor learning, and outdoor education such as hiking, boating, camping and climbing. They also complete school curriculum which has been modified to capitalise upon the outdoor environment and applied opportunities. The experience is very different from the everyday as students remain with their peers 24/7, go without seeing their family, and are disconnected from technology for the entire time.

The program aims to create immersive experiences which lead to new skills, as well as improvements in confidence and connectedness.

The program enables students to experience life from another angle during the formative period of adolescence. The details of the program are adapted from group to group, and year to year, meaning each group of students experiences a slightly different version of the

VVRP. This is due to planned and unplanned elements including weather, seasonality, staffing, external events and program development initiatives. Over the three years of the study, some programs have been coeducational as pilots of this approach have been instigated. The program also evolves based on student, staff and parent feedback which prompts changes and adjustments. Research into the program looks for points of significance which hold relatively steady from program to program and cohort to cohort; meaning the method of delivering the experience may change, but core elements of the Vision Valley residential experience remain similar. Insights from research have the capacity to shape future programs, as well as staff professional learning and communication strategies with incoming students and parents.

The leaders of the Vision Valley campus and Upper School team identify students’ sense of belonging as a highly significant area to more fully understand. This is because

the program intentionally removes students from their familiar school and home environments and establishes an immersive learning community for a period of time. This places students under a degree of stress, as new relationships and routines are introduced, but also offers a range of freedoms in context with the setting. For example, students build new relationships with peers and adults, live away from home in a boarding-house style environment (which is a very new experience to most), develop new habits such as reading, playing cards and being more active, have more sleep, and experience life without the constant intrusion of technology. Many of these elements have the capacity to endure beyond the period of the residential program and it is hoped they will go some way to shaping distinct attitudes towards life. A stronger sense of self, along with greater confidence in unfamiliar situations, are goals the program hopes to see developed which transfer to academic learning and social-emotional wellbeing.

Does a sense of belonging increase for students after an outdoor education residential program?

Table 1: Summary of program attendance, 2022 to 2024

RESEARCH QUESTION

Does students’ sense of belonging to school change following participation in the Vision Valley outdoor education residential program?

WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS RESEARCH?

Students who participate in the VVRP are invited to participate in the associated research. The breakdown of participants across each program, as well as the number of research participants per program, are shown in Table 1. The data in this report come from Pymble Ladies’ College students (girls) who attended the VVRP from 2022 to Term 1 2024, and who completed the pre- and postprogram questionnaire.

In total, seven cohorts have attended the VVRP and, of the full group of 530 students, 359 have been girls. Four of the cohorts (1, 4, 5 and 7) were co-educational with boys from partner schools attending. This was done in the context of a pilot

program for both the boys’ schools involved. Research has not been conducted with the boys as their own schools have not run similar research. The two most recent programs (cohorts 6 and 7) have been compulsory for Year 9 students at Pymble Ladies’ College who attend the VVRP in groups across the calendar year. Prior to that, in 2022 and 2023, attending the VVRP was optional and girls in these year groups could choose which camp they wished to join that year.

Data collection for the first two cohorts was completed as part of the research with Western Sydney University. A unique student identification number was given so the pre- and post-program questionnaires could be matched. If the student identification number was incomplete or wrongly entered, the surveys were discarded. This explains why the number of survey respondents in these cohorts was lower than the number of girls who

attended. In the later cohorts (3 to 7), alignment of pre- and post-program questionnaires was not established and this increased the amount of data available for use. It was also established that matching of preand post-questionnaires to specific individuals was not required for valid inferences to be explored.

HOW WAS THE RESEARCH CONDUCTED?

A questionnaire of forty-four questions was created using expertise from academic colleagues at Western Sydney University (see Cooper, Ullman, Curry & Gray, 2023).

The full questionnaire includes items from the Adolescent Girls Resilience Scale (AGRS) (Whittington & Aspelmeir, 2018) and the Academic Buoyancy Scale (Martin & Marsh, 2008), as well as the six question, ‘Sense of Belonging at School’ instrument, from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (De Bortoli, 2018).

The pre-program questionnaire was administered via an online survey undertaken either at school prior to students’ departure for the program or within the first few hours of the program beginning at Vision Valley. The post-program questionnaire was administered before leaving Vision Valley or shortly upon return to the College. Teachers supervised both periods of data collection and iPads were used to administer the online surveys.

The six questions from the ‘Sense of Belonging at School’ instrument are listed below. They ask students to think about themselves at their school and state the extent to which they agree with the following statements:

• I feel like an outsider (or left out of things) at school (phrased in the negative)

• I make friends easily at school

• I feel like I belong at school

• I feel awkward and out of place in

my school (phrased in the negative)

• Other students seem to like me

• I feel lonely at school (phrased in the negative)

These six items are scored using a four-point scale of “Strongly Disagree”, “Disagree”, “Agree” and “Strongly Agree”. These are reduced to a two-point scale which indicates the number of students broadly “agreeing” or “disagreeing” with each item (Williams, 2003).

The same questionnaire was given a further time to students fourteen months after they completed the program. As Year 11 students, the forty-eight ‘pioneer’ students who attended the VVRP in cohorts 1 and 2 (2022) completed the original questionnaire for a third time. They were additionally given an openended question asking about the overall impact the VVRP had on them. Data from this question is allowing for longitudinal analysis

of students’ experiences. For more information, see Researching the medium-term impacts of Pymble’s outdoor education residential program: Student reflections after fourteen months

RESULTS

Compared to the Australian PISA data for Sense of Belonging, Pymble Ladies’ College students in the pre-program questionnaires report a higher sense of belonging than the Australian-wide average. This is not surprising given that schools in a metropolitan area of a higher socio-economic class are shown to produce higher scores than other types of schools. Additionally, attending an independent school has been noted in the PISA report as contributing to a higher sense of belonging at school (OECD, 2023).

Regarding Australian PISA data (2022), De Bortoli (2018, p. iii) notes that Australian fifteen year old students

Table 2: Friendship statements within the Sense of Belonging questions. Data from 278 girls who completed the pre-program questionnaire and 307 who completed the post-program questionnaire, across all seven cohorts, are represented.

I feel lonely at school (% disagree)

Other students seem to like me (% agree)

I make friends easily at school (% agree)

Does a sense of belonging increase for students after an outdoor education residential program?

report, on average, ‘a significantly poorer sense of belonging at school compared to students across the OECD’, but that, on the positive side, ‘a significantly higher proportion… agreed that they made friends easily at school and that other students liked them’ and ‘a significantly lower proportion … disagreed that they felt like an outsider or felt left out of things, that they felt awkward and out of place, and that they felt lonely at school’. This suggests that feelings of belonging include multiple factors and that, whilst a global sense of belonging at school may be reduced, confidence in friendship skills and feelings of acceptance can be high. To analyse the VVRP data, responses for the six questions in the PISA Sense of Belonging at School measure have been clustered into two themes explored below. Firstly, the three ‘friendship’ statements are explored and, secondly, the three ‘belonging’ statements. Each are analysed with data from all seven cohorts attending the VVRP between 2022 and Term 1, 2024. When analysing data relating to the two cohorts who are now fourteen months out from their program, only cohorts 1 and 2 are considered.

FRIENDSHIP STATEMENTS IN THE SENSE OF BELONGING QUESTIONS (ALL COHORTS)

The friendship statements in the PISA Sense of Belonging measure are, I feel lonely at school; other students seem to like me; and, I make friends easily at school. The first of these, I feel lonely at school, is expressed in the negative, meaning that respondents were asked if they disagreed with this statement. Table 2 shows the pre- and post-program results in these items, as well as the Australian-wide scores for 15 year old boys and girls in the PISA testing

program of 2022 (13,437 students from 743 schools) (ACER, 2023) which are discussed briefly above.

The data show that following the VVRP, scores in Other students seem to like me and I make friends easily at school increase, indicating the program may have positively impacted individuals’ outlooks on themselves and others following the month away. The increase in agreement with the statement, Other students seem to like me, is very significant with a 7% difference in pre- to post-program figures. This compares with a result of only 78% of students in the 2022 PISA nationwide group agreeing to the same comment.

This aligns with teachers’ anecdotal evidence and student testimonials that peer relationships were strengthened due to the closeness of living quarters and design of the program which maximised team work and collaboration. The physical and emotional challenges of expeditions, living away from home, being without their families and usual friendship groups meant students repeatedly needed to go beyond their comfort zones to work with other students.

Interestingly, in the co-educational programs (cohorts 1, 4, 5 and 7), the number of students agreeing with the statement, I make friends easily at school, saw an increase of 3% in the post-program questionnaire. This may reflect additional confidence in friendship skills following exposure to the boys, whom the girls had never met before. It may have meant girls became better at recognising individual self-efficacy in making friends and that they successfully tried out their friendship making skills

with the boys during the program.

The statement, I feel lonely at school, asked students whether they disagreed with this feeling, and in the post-program questionnaire, an additional 1% of students stated that they disagreed with the proposition following the month away. At the time of the program, 87% of students disagreed with the statement (I feel lonely at school), compared to 82% in the nation-wide 2022 PISA group.

BELONGING STATEMENTS IN THE SENSE OF BELONGING QUESTIONS (ALL COHORTS)

The belonging statements in the PISA Sense of Belonging measure are, I feel awkward and out of place in my school and I feel like an outsider at school (to which students are asked whether they disagree) and I feel like I belong at my school (to which students are asked whether they agree). Table 3 shows the pre- and post-program results in these items, as well as the Australian-wide scores for 15 year old boys and girls in the PISA testing program of 2022 (13,437 students from 743 schools) (ACER, 2023).

On all three measures, students reported an increase in feelings associated with belonging and a reduction in feelings impeding a sense of belonging. When asked about feelings of awkwardness and feeling out of place at school, 25% of students in the nation-wide PISA group revealed their assent to these emotions. By the conclusion of the VVRP month away, only 12% of Pymble students were in the same category with 4% of the total cohort switching from feeling awkward and out of place to feeling accepted and included. The statement, I feel like an outsider, reveals similar results with

Table 3: Belonging statements within the Sense of Belonging questions.

Data from 278 girls who completed the pre-program questionnaire and 307 who completed the post-program questionnaire, across all seven cohorts, are represented.

I feel awkward and out of place in my school (% disagree)

I feel like I belong at my school (% agree)

I feel like an outsider at school (% disagree)

86% of Pymble students disagreeing with this at the start of the program and 88% by its conclusion. The positively phrased statement, I feel like I belong at my school, reinforces the positive impact of the VVRP with 85% of respondents agreeing before the program and an additional 3% (88%) at the program’s end.

14 MONTHS ON (COHORTS 1 AND 2 ONLY)

The longitudinal impact of the VVRP is the subject of the research summary, Researching the mediumterm impacts of Pymble’s outdoor education residential program: Student reflections after fourteen months. This report explores an open-ended question which asked students about the overall impact of the program. In Tables 4 and 5, students’ Sense of Belonging is measured across three time periods: Time 1 - before their VVRP commenced (2022), Time 2 - at the immediate conclusion of their program (2022) and, Time 3 -

fourteen months after they attended the VVRP (2023).

Under examination for this question are data from cohorts 1 and 2 (see Table 1). From a total of 63 students who participated in the original research activities amongst these cohorts, 48 students validly completed the questionnaire in November 2023; 35 from Wave 1 and 13 from Wave 2. This represents approximately 56% of attendees in the first two cohorts. Our aim in administering the questionnaire a third time was to see if gains from the program, represented positively in post-program results, had remained with the students one year beyond the end of the program.

14 MONTHS ON: FRIENDSHIP STATEMENTS (COHORTS 1 AND 2)

The results of the third period of data collection (fourteen months after the VVRP) indicate that students in cohorts 1 and 2 were feeling slightly more lonely at school at this time,

compared to the time of completing the questionnaire fourteen months earlier. Similarly, there had been a small drop in students who agreed with the statement, Other students seem to like me, when surveyed fourteen months after their VVRP experience. Both figures dropped from 96% agreement immediately post-program to 94%, slightly more than one year later. Reasons for this reduction could include the positive feelings of friendship post-program impact dropping away with time or an increase in friendship challenges throughout Years 9 and 10, possibly heightening as the transition to Year 11 loomed ahead. This period of adolescence often entails many changes in friends and groupings and this could also account for the reduction.

By contrast, however, the statement, I make friends easily at school revealed an increase with agreement rising from 91% immediately postprogram to 96% fourteen months

Does a sense of belonging increase for students after an outdoor education residential program?

Table 4: Friendship statements within the Sense of Belonging questions, cohorts 1 and 2, before and after the program and one year on.

I feel lonely at school (% disagree)

Other students seem to like me (% agree)

I make friends easily at school (% agree)

later. This may reflect even greater ease and skill in making friends as the students mature, but interestingly, these two cohorts reveal a dip in agreement with the statement from pre-program to the time immediately post-program, indicating that the VVRP may not have contributed to friendship-making skills for these two specific groups, although the data shows a positive impact did when all cohorts are examined together.

14 MONTHS ON: BELONGING STATEMENTS (COHORTS 1 AND

2)

In contrast with the friendship statements, the belonging statements a year on from the program indicate the gains in this domain have not been lost. On all three measures, students indicate they do not feel as awkward and out of place as they did the previous year, they feel like they belong at their school and they do not feel like an outsider at their school to a greater extent than the last time they completed the questionnaire. Specifically, students’ sense of belonging at school at the

end of Year 10 (2023) seems to be even stronger for cohorts 1 and 2 than it was for them in the middle of Year 9 (2022). This could be due to factors other than the VVRP, but it would seem that at least the changes in students’ feelings about belonging at school after the VVRP have grown stronger with time.

Commentary on the PISA report of 2022 data explains why some students show greater sense of belonging at school. The report authors suggest it could be attributed to positive disciplinary climate at the school, to teacher and parent support, and participation in extracurricular activities (OECD, 2019). Further research is needed to understand the reasons behind the increase in a sense of belonging from the end of the VVRP to another significant point of transition, the end of Year 10, some fourteen months later.

DISCUSSION

In response to the research question, does students’ sense of

belonging to school change following participation in the Vision Valley outdoor education residential program, the data indicates a number of positive aspects which will be of interest to educators, students and parents. At a glance, the overall data reveals that after attending the VVRP students feel less lonely, less awkward and out of place, they feel more liked, like they belong more and they feel like less of an outsider at school. These results indicate the impact of the VVRP is contributing to improvements in students’ sense of belonging of school. It is not possible to determine that the VVRP was the sole factor leading to the improvement in these areas, but an increase so close to the end of the program suggests the program itself has contributed to the difference. The data from cohorts 1 and 2 who have contributed an additional third phase of collection, show some ups and downs, but the small number of attendees and responses (cohort 2) may have impacted these results. Of interest is the question of what

aspects of the VVRP contributed to elements of friendship skills, feeling liked, feeling less awkward etc. The response is multifaceted as, with more data available, Vision Valley and Upper School staff had a better understanding of the needs of the cohort in the first few days of the program. On an intimate level, group leaders were able to respond more quickly to seeing students being left out and praise skills in students who were reaching out to others or who were demonstrating leadership skills in their group. These teaching skills are commonly used but greater insight from cohort to cohort is assisting in teachers to make them more explicit and designing activities which bring them to the fore.

As the VVRP has established itself over the past few years, greater efficacy amongst staff, refinement of program activities and positive word of mouth amongst students and parents is helping to prepare new attendees for what to expect, prepare for and feel excited about. The corporate sense of

belonging felt by the College towards the VVRP has also been assisting as two way interchanges relating to curriculum and wellbeing let students know of the excellent growth opportunities they have ahead of them and what they can do to make the most of them.

LIMITATIONS

One limitation considered during the analysis phase was the phrasing of the term, ‘at school’ e.g. I feel like an outsider at school I feel like I belong at school. As the VVRP occurs at a site and in a mode literally and metaphorically distant from students’ regular experience of school, it is difficult to be sure how students interpreted these questions in the PISA tool. For example, when asked if they agreed with the statement, I feel like I belong at school, either when about to embark upon or just finishing the VVRP, did students agree that they felt like an outsider back at school but felt a sense of belonging in the residential program which was not at school?

The two locations are melded in the wording of the question as it is. More precise wording for the context presented in our research would be to ask, separately, the extent to which students felt like they belong at and make friendships at school and at Vision Valley. It would be revealing to understand whether students had differing levels of friendships and belonging across the two experiences of ‘school’.

Another limitation to the study was the lack of secondary data gathering, such as focus groups or interviews, to delve into students’ experiences in the areas of friendship and sense of belonging. This may have aided in exploring students’ understanding and interpretation of the questions. From an adolescent standpoint, friendships are critical and can involve ups and downs (all at the same time), and they can feel a sense of belonging in one dimension but not in another. As such, more nuanced data collection is needed to explore how and why some factors

Table 5: Belonging statements within the Sense of Belonging questions, cohorts 1 and 2, before and after the program and one year on.

I feel awkward and out of place in my school (% disagree)

I feel like I belong at my school (% agree)

I feel like an outsider at school (% disagree)

Does a sense of belonging increase for students after an outdoor education residential program?

appear to strengthen and others reduce across time.

CONCLUSION

The solid trends relating to improvements in sense of belonging data after the month away across the areas of friendship and belonging will be very reassuring for parents and students who may be unsure of attending.

The data in this report indicate an overall uplift in factors describing students’ sense of belonging to school following the experience of the VVRP when all seven cohorts are examined together. They reflect students whose demographic backgrounds, as students at an

urban, independent school, are already above the PISA average.

A benefit of conducting research within the school is that follow up and further exploration of the items mentioned above can evolve within the bounds of program development, without the requirement of further research. By sharing the data with the VVRP staff, questions can emerge relating to what the results may reflect and data from the preprogram questionnaires can be used to apply suggestions which can lead to further impact observed immediately by staff.

The data also provide reassuring insights for Pymble Ladies’ College outdoor education and Upper School

staff who have worked consistently at making the program an inviting, reassuring, challenging, exciting and meaningful life experience. It opens up new veins of questioning relating to the difference between Vision Valley and ‘normal school’, and has the capacity to illuminate how the many positive growth experiences in the VVRP can be transferred even more effectively and impactfully to what could be termed ‘regular school and regular life’.

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