This three-paper dissertation uses social network analysis to examine the literacy development and small group discourse of multilingual students in Grades 4 and 5. The data come from a randomized-controlled trial testing the effectiveness of homogeneous and heterogeneous small groups for English learners. The first paper tests whether two types…

Background: Peers constitute an important developmental context for adolescent academic behaviour providing support and resources to either promote or discourage attitudes and behaviours that contribute to school success. When looking for academic help, students may prefer specific partners based on their social goals regarding academic…

Drawing on network behavior literature, this research examines how business students' extra-classroom social network behavior for learning with peers (i.e., horizontal network behavior) and with the instructor (i.e., vertical network behavior) influences their learning, which in turn affects their grade performance. It also investigates the…

The theoretical framework of communities of practice (CoP) is often used for framing research into online communities. However, there is an absence of measures and empirical work that evaluates knowledge-sharing within such communities. This represents a substantial gap in our understanding of informal learning for diverse people and in the case…

People with intellectual disability use social media; however, there are barriers preventing them from using and benefiting from social media to the same extent as others. Some barriers include lack of knowledge, limited skills and inaccessibility. This pilot study used a sequential mixed method design to explore the outcomes of a social media…

Research attention to investigating elementary STEM teachers' Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) has grown. However, what types of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) elementary STEM teachers share in their PLNs are still under-examined. This case study aims to explore elementary STEM…

This study shares findings from a review of eight science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher leader programs across the United States. With limited empirical research in STEM teacher leadership, the goal of the study is to build the research knowledge about STEM teacher leader conceptualization and structure. Results from…

Objective: This study analyzes pandemic-era diminished mental health and social connections among college students. Participants: Students of a large public university completed an online survey measuring self-reported mental health symptoms for themselves and that of their closest social connections. Methods: Three regression models were used to…

Context: The importance of the involved stakeholders and their networks in vocational education and training (VET) focussing on international transfer and cooperation is highlighted in various empirical studies. A systematic empirical survey of these by means of social network analysis, however, has hardly been applied to date. This article is…

This research investigates how tertiary students' views on social networks for learning purposes relate to their emotional reactions and their level of academic involvement in technology-supported learning environments. A total of 890 Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students from five provinces (Esfahan, Tehran, Markazi, Shiraz,…

The concept of "collective contributions to career efficacy" (CCCE) has been long proposed to conceptualize the effects of influences from various significant others on individuals' career efficacy and development. However, the longitudinal and dynamic implications of CCCE for individuals' career development, especially the relative…

Interagency collaboration (IAC) is mandated by U.S. federal legislation and is a well-established best practice in the transition literature. At the same time, there is limited research that examines the predictors of greater IAC, and the breadth of partners that secondary special educators collaborate with across school systems, service systems,…

This article discusses the author's experiences teaching an undergraduate course, Graphic Narrative in the Hispanic World, in order to share some strategies to help students recognize how the study of comics and other humanities disciplines can help them develop crucial skills for their success and career readiness. The article first outlines the…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to highlight the trajectory of Women of Color (WoC) administrators in a key STEM discipline: engineering. WoC are underrepresented in higher education, representing fewer than 10% of administrators. Through this study, we provide a nuanced perspective on how the presence of WoC administrators change and…

Social network analysis has become a common methodology within physics education research to quantify the impacts that student interactions and classroom structure have on student outcomes. These relationships are typically quantified using a degree centrality metric based on the number and range of connections a student has, such that a higher…