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1. Creativity in temporal social networks: how divergent thinking is impacted by one’s choice of peers

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2020.0667  

   Baten, Raiyan Abdul; Bagley, Daryl; Tenesaca, Ashely; Clark, Famous; Bagrow, James P.; Ghoshal, Gourab; Hoque, Ehsan (October 2020, Journal of The Royal Society Interface)

   null (Ed.)

   Creativity is viewed as one of the most important skills in the context of future-of-work. In this paper, we explore how the dynamic (self-organizing) nature of social networks impacts the fostering of creative ideas. We run six trials ( N = 288) of a web-based experiment involving divergent ideation tasks. We find that network connections gradually adapt to individual creative performances, as the participants predominantly seek to follow high-performing peers for creative inspirations. We unearth both opportunities and bottlenecks afforded by such self-organization. While exposure to high-performing peers is associated with better creative performances of the followers, we see a counter-effect that choosing to follow the same peers introduces semantic similarities in the followers’ ideas. We formulate an agent-based simulation model to capture these intuitions in a tractable manner, and experiment with corner cases of various simulation parameters to assess the generality of the findings. Our findings may help design large-scale interventions to improve the creative aptitude of people interacting in a social network. 

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2. Classroom Connections: A Social Network Analysis of STEM Students at a Regional University

   https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251231215787  

   Ramsey, Laura R.; Yu, Wanchunzi; Kling, Thomas; Kling, Audrey (December 2023, Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice)

   Previous research has established that peer relationships are important for student success, yet little research has examined connections made in the classroom, as opposed to residence life or extracurricular activities. This project utilized social network analysis in two cohorts of science and mathematics majors to investigate the degree to which students take multiple courses with the same peers. Results showed (1) wide variability in student networks, (2) course selection by students included more repeated connections than random course selection, (3) networks did not vary much by demographic variables (gender, race, first-generation status, and income), and (4) student networks significantly predicted graduation and grades. This correlational research provides a foundation for future experimental research testing the causal impact of classroom-based student networks. This research also serves as a model for how other institutions may analyze institutional data to understand patterns of peer connections and course enrollment at their institution. 

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3. Role of Race and Gender of Pedagogical Agents in Multimedia Learning

   https://doi.org/10.1177/07356331251322469  

   Zhao, Fangzheng; Mayer, Richard_E; Adamo-Villani, Nicoletta; Mousas, Christos; Choi, Minsoo; Hauser, Klay (February 2025, Journal of Educational Computing Research)

   Do students learn from video lessons presented by pedagogical agents of different racial and gender types equivalently to those delivered by a real human instructor? How do the race and gender of these agents impact students’ learning experiences and outcomes? In this between-subject design study, college students were randomly assigned to view a six 9-minute video lesson on chemical bonds, presented by pedagogical agents varying in gender (male, female) and race (Asian, Black, White), or to view the original lesson with a real human instructor. In comparing learning with a human instructor versus with a pedagogical agent of various races and genres, ANOVAs revealed no significant differences in learning outcomes (retention and transfer scores) or learner emotions, but students reported a stronger social connection with the human instructor over pedagogical agents. Students reported stronger positive emotions and social connections with female agents over male agents. Additionally, there was limited evidence of a race-matching effect, with White students showing greater positive emotion while learning with pedagogical agents of the same race. These findings highlight the limitations of pedagogical agents compared to human instructors in video lessons, while partially reflecting gender stereotypes and intergroup bias in instructor evaluations. 

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4. Using Social Network Analysis to Study the Social Structures of Inclusion

   Pearson, Nelson; Major, Justin; Godwin, Allison; Kirn, Adam (January 2018, ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   The purpose of this research paper is to understand how diverse students are incorporated into the social structure of a large enrollment first-year engineering design course. Despite previous work demonstrating the benefits of diverse individuals in engineering, little work has examined how diverse students are incorporated into the social networks that exist within engineering classrooms. Social interactions are one of the most influential sources for integration into communities of practice. Through understanding how students interact and the structure of these interactions, we can elucidate how the engineering community includes members of underrepresented populations. Previous social network analysis (SNA) studies have scrutinized student classroom interactions. These studies typically attempt to link classroom interactions to academic outcomes (i.e., grades). In this study, we start to shift the focus away from connecting student interactions to academic outcomes and examine how the structure of student interactions can encourage an inclusive environment in a formal engineering environment. SNA data was collected via an online survey (n = 502, 74% response rate) one month into the semester at a Western land-grant institution. The survey asked first-year engineering students to indicate with whom they had interacted using a pre-populated list of the class roster and open-ended questions. The number of students that were mentioned by a participant (out-degree) is interpreted as a proxy of their sociableness. Whereas, the number of times a student was mentioned by others (in-degree) is interpreted as popularity. We posit that in an inclusive network structure the social behaviors (i.e., in and out-degree) will be independent of students’ demographic characteristics (e.g., race and gender). Nonparametric hypothesis testing (i.e., Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s test) was used to investigate the effects of gender and race on both in and out-degree. Results indicate that the social structure of the first-year engineering community is inclusive of both gender and race. Specifically, results indicated no significant differences for in-degree based on measures of race and gender, for students who provided race and gender information. Out-degree was not significantly different based on race. However, women did demonstrate significantly higher out-degree scores (i.e., greater sociableness) than their peers. Building on previous SNA literature, the increased connections expressed by women may lead to increased learning gains or performance within engineering. Results indicated that the social structure of this first-year engineering course, as indicated by in-degree and out-degree, is not significantly different for underrepresented groups. This result begins to illustrate a more complex story than the existing literature has documented of engineering as an unwelcoming environment for underrepresented students. Future work will explore how these structures do or do not persist over time and how individuals develop attitudes towards diverse individuals as a result of these interactions. We hope that the results of this work will provide practical ways to improve engineering climate for underrepresented students. 

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5. Persistence of African American Females in Engineering: The Mathematics Identity Factor.

   McKoy, T.L.; Beane, C.D.; Oyeteju, M.O.; Hammond, M.S.; Hargrove, S.K (January 2020, Urban education research and policy annuals)

   null (Ed.)

   To continue as global science and technological leaders, the United States is motivated to create a diverse, engineering workforce. One way of diversifying the engineering workforce is to address the disparity of women engineers. Although concerted efforts to improve retention rates of women in engineering are ongoing, women have earned only 5.6% of all undergraduate engineering degrees, with only 1% attributed to African American women (NSF, 2015b). African American women are commonly included in racial or gender-focused studies on persistence; however, few studies assess the effect of multiple identities to persistence. This exploratory study examined the relationship of persistence, measured by intent to persist, to multiple identities (social, professional, and racial) of African American female engineering students. Forward regression analyses were conducted and results indicated that the participant’s mathematical identities were more salient to them than their racial or gender identities. Also, the values these women placed on being an engineer and belonging to the group were principal aspects of their professional identity. Additionally, negative affect and stereotype threat were found significant predictors of intent to persist. 

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