Students' network integration as a predictor of persistence in introductory physics courses

TL;DR

This study uses network analysis to show that students' social integration in an interactive physics course strongly predicts their likelihood of continuing in the sequence, with up to 75% accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces the use of social network centrality measures to predict student persistence in physics courses, highlighting the importance of social integration.

Findings

Higher centrality correlates with increased persistence.

Centrality measures predict persistence with up to 75% accuracy.

Social integration may improve STEM retention.

Abstract

Increasing student retention (successfully finishing a particular course) and persistence (continuing through a sequence of courses or the major area of study) is currently a major challenge for universities. While students' academic and social integration into an institution seems to be vital for student retention, research into the effect of interpersonal interactions is rare. We use network analysis as an approach to investigate academic and social experiences of students in the classroom. In particular, centrality measures identify patterns of interaction that contribute to integration into the university. Using these measures, we analyze how position within a social network in a Modeling Instruction (MI) course -- an introductory physics course that strongly emphasizes interactive learning -- predicts their persistence in taking a subsequent physics course. Students with higher centrality at the end of the first semester of MI are more likely to enroll in a second semester of MI. Moreover, we found that chances of successfully predicting individual student's persistence based on centrality measures are fairly high -- up to $75\%$, making the centrality a good predictor of persistence. These findings suggest that increasing student social integration may help in improving persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.