Investigating Student Communities with Network Analysis of Interactions in a Physics Learning Center

Abstract

Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed to increased recruitment and retention of physics majors. Finn and Rock [1] link the academic and social integration of students to increased rates of retention. We utilize social network analysis to quantify interactions in Florida International University's Physics Learning Center (PLC) that support the development of academic and social integration,. The tools of social network analysis allow us to visualize and quantify student interactions, and characterize the roles of students within a social network. After providing a brief introduction to social network analysis, we use sequential multiple regression modeling to evaluate factors which contribute to participation in the learning community. Results of the sequential multiple regression indicate that the PLC learning community is an equitable environment as we find that gender and ethnicity are not significant predictors of participation in the PLC. We find that providing students space for collaboration provides a vital element in the formation of supportive learning community.

14 pages, 3 tables, 4 figures

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Students' network integration as a predictor of persistence in introductory physics courses
• Extending positive C-LASS results across multiple instructors and multiple classes of Modeling Instruction
• Beyond performance metrics: Examining a decrease in students' physics self-efficacy through a social network lens
• Educational commitment and social networking: The power of informal networks
• Correlation Between Student Collaboration Network Centrality and Academic Performance
• Network positions in active learning environments in physics
• Talking by the numbers: Networks identify productive forum discussions
• Understanding interaction network formation across instructional contexts in remote physics courses
• Person-centered and qualitative approaches to network analysis in physics education research
• Long-term collaboration with strong friendship ties improves academic performance in remote and hybrid teaching modalities in high school physics
• Correlations between student connectivity and academic performance: a pandemic follow-up
• What topics of peer interactions correlate with student performance in physics courses?
• Network analysis approach to Likert-style surveys