Student networks and their links with academic achievement: Theoretical and methodological perspectives
(2021)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- LAURIER, WIM
- Abstract
- Over the years, research interest in networks has continued to grow in various application areas, including education. Next, there is a need for understanding why some students succeed and others fail at university. Many earlier studies conducted on student networks have shown to what extent students' interactions with their peers and students’ communities must be considered when studying academic success. This doctoral research investigates first-year university student networks and their relationship to learning, performance, and/or academic success from a theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspective. Moreover, it aims to propose methodologies and tools to enrich the Graph-Based Educational Data Mining field (i.e., GBEDM). The first part of the manuscript summarizes the literature from the 2000s to the 2020s on student networks and learning, performance or academic success. It also discusses the methodological tools that have been developed in the analysis of social networks, as researchers may encounter several methodological problems when studying (student) networks. The second part, empirical, deals with research questions that relate to student networks and academic performance. It addresses the raised methodological challenges by means of several approaches (e.g., by using Exponential Random Graph Models and hierarchical or multilevel models). Also, this thesis investigates friendships and instrumental - i.e., strategic - relationships, in analogy with the different tie types studied in organizational settings. Finally, alternative centrality measures - i.e., to those that were systematically considered within research on (student) networks - are studied. The discussion summarizes the results, presents the contributions of the research, addresses its limitations, and emphasizes the need for further research for the GBEDM research field.
- Affiliations
Citations
Vignery, K. (2021). Student networks and their links with academic achievement: Theoretical and methodological perspectives. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/113932