Exploring classroom community: A social network study of Reacting to the Past
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.4.1.4Keywords:
Classroom Community, Social Networks, Role-Playing Games, Higher Education, Collaborative LearningAbstract
In this exploratory social network study, we examined how student relationships evolved during three month-long Reacting to the Past (RTTP) role-playing games in a lower division honors course at a large US public university. Our purpose was to explore how RTTP games—and collaborative learning approaches more generally—impact classroom community in college courses. We found that both acquaintance and friendship ties between students increased dramatically during the game, eliminating student isolation without tending to create new cliques. These added ties made acquaintance and friendship networks simultaneously denser and more inclusive than they were before the game. We conclude by advancing a hypothesis about the network effects of intensive peer interaction. Collaborative learning approaches like RTTP, we suggest, produce high-density networks with limited clustering because structured peer interactions cut across existing or naturally occurring clique boundaries.
Metrics
References
Astin, A. W. (1993). What matters in college? Liberal Education, 1–4.
Bowman, N. A. (2010). College diversity experiences and cognitive development: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 80(1), 4-33.
Bruffee, K. (1993). Collaborative learning: Higher education, interdependence, and the authority of knowledge. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Burney, J., Powers, R.G., & Carnes, M. (2010). Reacting to the Past: A New Approach to Student Engagement and to Enhancing General Education. White Paper Report. New York, NY: Teagle Foundation.
Burt, R. (2005). Brokerage and closure: An introduction to social capital. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carnes, M. C. (2011, March). Setting students’ minds on fire. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Setting-Students-Minds-on/126592/.
Carnes, M. C. (2014). Minds on fire: How role-immersion games transform college. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Christakis, N., & Fowler, J. H. (2008). Connected: The amazing power of social networks and how they shape our lives. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Cooley, C. (1962). Social Organization. New York, NY: Schocken.
Costenbader, E. (2003, October). The stability of centrality measures when networks are sampled. Social Networks, 25 (4), 283–307.
Curşeu, P. L., & Pluut, H. (2013). Student groups as learning entities: The effect of group diversity and teamwork quality on groups' cognitive complexity. Studies in Higher Education, 38(1), 87-103.
Davis, J., & Leinhardt, S. (1974). The structure of positive interpersonal relations in small groups. In J. Berger (Ed.), Sociological theories in progress, volume 2 (pp. 218-251). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York, NY: Collier Books.
Deci, E., Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L., & Ryan, R. (1991, June). Motivation and education: The self-determination perspective. Educational Psychologist, 26 (3), 325-346.
Driscoll, M., Dunn, E. E., Siems, D. P., & Swanson, B. K. (2014). Charles Darwin, the Copley Medal and the rise of naturalism, 1861-64. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Farrington, C. A. (2013). Academic mindsets as a critical component of deeper learning: A white paper prepared for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Chicago, IL: Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Farrington, C. A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T. S., Johnson, D. W., & Beechum, N. O. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners: The role of noncognitive factors in shaping school performance--A critical literature review. Chicago, IL: Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Good, C., Aronson, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2003). Improving adolescents' standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(6), 645-662.
Good, C., Rattan, A., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Why do women opt out? Sense of belonging and women's representation in mathematics. Journal of personality and social psychology, 102(4), 700.
Goodreau, S. M., Kitts, J. A., & Morris, M. (2009). Birds of a feather or friend of a friend? Using Exponential Random Graph Models to investigate adolescent social networks. Demography, 46 (1), 103–125.
Granovetter, M. (1983). The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. Sociological theory, 1 (1983), 201–233.
Hunter, D., & Handcock, M. (2008). ergm: A package to fit, simulate and diagnose Exponential-family Random Graph Models for networks. Journal of statistical software, 24 (3).
Jaffee, D. (2007). Peer cohorts and the unintended consequences of freshman learning communities. College Teaching, 55 (2), 65–71.
Kadushin, C. (2012). Understanding social networks: Theories, concepts, and findings. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, USA.
Kates, G., & Carnes, M. C. (2014). Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Lee, P., & Ashby, R. (2000). Progression in historical understanding among students ages 7-14. In P.N. Stearns, P. Seixas, & S. Wineburg, (Eds.), Knowing teaching & learning history: National and international perspectives. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Lee, P. (2004). Understanding history. In P. Seixas (Ed.) Theorizing historical consciousness (pp. 129-164). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Lusher, D., Koskinen, J., & Robins, G. (Eds.). (2013). Exponential random graph models for social networks. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50 (4), 370-96.
McKinney, J. P., McKinney, K. G., Franiuk, R., & Schweitzer, J. (2006). The College classroom as a community: Impact on student attitudes and learning. College Teaching, 54 (3), 281-284.
McPherson, M., & Smith-Lovin, L. (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 415–444.
Osterman, K. F. (2000). Students’ need for belonging in the school community. Review of Educational Research, 70 (3), 323–367.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students. Volume 2: A third decade of research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Pascarella, E. T., & Blaich, C. (2013). Lessons from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 45(2), 6-15. Retrieved December 19, 2013, from www.changemag.org/Archives/Back Issues/2013/March-April 2013/wabash_full.html
Pike, G. R., Kuh, G. D., & McCormick, A. C. (2010, October). An investigation of the contingent relationships between learning community participation and student engagement. Research in Higher Education, 52 (3), 300-322.
Purnell, F. J., Pettersen, M. S., & Carnes, M. C. (2014). The trial of Galileo: Aristotelianism, the "New Cosmology," and the Catholic Church, 1616-33. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Shaw, M. (1971). Group dynamics: The psychology of group behavior. New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.
Summers, J. J., & Svinicki, M. D. (2007). Investigating classroom community in higher education. Learning and Individual Differences, 17 (1), 55–67.
Tinto, V. (1997, November). Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational character of student persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 68 (6), 599-623.
Valente, T. (2010). Social networks and health: Models, methods, and applications. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1958). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2007). A question of belonging: race, social fit, and achievement. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92 (1), 82-96.
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students. Science, 331(6023), 1447-51.
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Applications and methods. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-psychological interventions in education: They’re not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267-301.
Zhao, C. M., & Kuh, G. D. (2004, March). Adding value: Learning communities and student engagement. Research in Higher Education, 45(2), 115–138.
