The College Mathematics Beliefs and Belonging Survey: Instrument Development and Validation

Abstract

This paper reports on the development and validation process of a new measure—the College Mathematics Beliefs and Belonging (CMBB) survey. The CMBB provides a contemporary measurement of undergraduate students’ perceptions of their mathematical practices and reasoning, beliefs about mathematics, and sense of belonging in mathematics. Primarily first- and second-year undergraduate students in five mathematics courses at a large public university in the United States completed multiple surveys to provide the data used for survey development. Confirmatory factor analysis (N = 935) along with additional psychometric evidence detailed here indicate that the CMBB is a survey with fifteen factors that adequately measure various aspects of perceived mathematical practices and reasoning, beliefs, and sense of belonging. The CMBB survey is intended for use by researchers and instructors to assess undergraduate students’ perceptions across these three domains with the aim of improving students’ experiences in college mathematics courses.