Physics Seminar: Development of social positions in group exam networks

Dr. Steven F. Wolf
Assistant Professor, East Carolina University,
Department of Physics, Greenville, NC 27858

Abstract

Group work is often a critical component of how we ask students to interact while learning in active and interactive environments.  A common-sense extension of this feature is the inclusion of group assessments.  Moreover, one of the key scientific practices involve the development of collaborative working relationships.  As instructors, we should be cognizant of our classes development in the social crucible of our classroom, along with their development of cognitive and/or problem solving skills.  This talk presents a network analysis of group exam data from a two-class introductory physics sequence. In each class, on each of four exams, students took an individual version of the exam and then reworked the exam with classmates. Students recorded their collaborators before submitting the exam, and these reports are used to build directed networks. The networks are partitioned using positional analysis, which looks for similarities in linking behavior to detect blocks of actors in a network. By calculating the block structure for each exam and mapping over time, it is possible to see a stabilizing social structure in the two-class sequence. Some students appear to find a coherent group immediately, while others take longer, but almost all students settle into a regular set of collaborators by the second semester. We will discuss this evolving block structure, what it suggests about the social positions available to students in the classes, and how social position connects to exam grades.

WebEx Meeting link:

https://wright.webex.com/wright/j.php?MTID=m8132ab7a42791df6fa5375ac4fdc498c

Meeting number: 172 516 3608; Password: Pg9JayEqE73