Engineering student social capital in an interactive learning environment

• Autores: Shane A. Brown, David Street, Julie P. Martin
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 30, no. 4, 2014, págs. 813-821
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • College student access to resources has been shown to be important for learning, cognitive development, retention, and otheroutcomes. The framework of social capital, or resources embedded in social networks that are accessed by members of a network,captures the essence of this resource acquisition. One important source of social capital related to academic achievement is theinteractive classroom environment, but social capital development in this setting has not been studied. The purpose of this researchis to examine factors that influence social capital development in a setting where tutors are used in the lecture environment. Subjectmatter difficulty, approachability and accessibility of faculty and classroom environment were all factors that impacted students’choices related to accessing available social capital in this environment. Results can inform both social capital theory, in terms ofdevelopment in an academic setting, and tutoring in comparable interactive learning environments.