The aim of this explorative research study was to identify the relationship between the positions of individual students in their peer social networks and their classroom seating arrangement through sociometry and social network analysis. We examined the social networks of 17 classrooms comprising 363 students (183 boys, 180 girls) attending lower secondary schools (ISCED 2A). We found that positions in social networks could not be connected with single specific seating positions. Nonetheless, certain tendencies can be observed. Students who are perceived as more likeable sit in the middle column of the classroom and are seated close to each other. Locations inhabited by dominant students are positioned further from teachers and further apart from each other. The increase of the values of degree centrality, closeness centrality, and eigenvector centrality is noticeable in desks positioned further away from the teacher. By comparing these results with studies examining seating arrangements as a means of distributing learning opportunities through student participation, specific zones can be observed in the classroom that could benefit the children seated there in their roles as students and at the same time in their roles as classmates.
Analýza sociálnych sietí si svojim širokým využitím nachádza miesto v množstve vedeckých odborov. V pedagogickom výskume má potenciál odhaliť a preskúmať doteraz neznáme usporiadania vzťahov medzi aktérmi vo vzdelávaní. Tento článok poskytuje úvod do problematiky, techník a využitia analýz y sociálnych sietí v pedagogickom výskume. V prvom rade predstavuje základnú terminológiu a koncepty analýz y sociálnych sietí. Na príklade malej siete ilustruje základné sieťové výpočty tak na úrovni jednotlivých aktérov, ako na úrovni celej siete. Článok ďalej poskytuje stručný prehľad štúdií z pedagogického výskumu, v ktorých bola analýza sociálnych sietí využitá. Hlavná časť článku na príklade fiktívnej triedy a piatich výskumných otázok ukazuje možnosti analýz y sociálnych sietí v pedagogickom výskume od základnej prierezovej analýz y po dynamickú inferenčnú analýzu. Krok za krokom sú predstavené rôzne metódy s následnou interpretáciou ich výsledkov. Okrem výpočtov centralít, klastrovacieho koeficientu a prepojenosti siete sú v príkladoch predstavené aj permutačné testy pri testovaní významnosti za využitia sieťových dát, ERGM (exponential random graph models) a STERGM (separable temporal exponential graph models). V neposlednom rade sú prediskutované problémy spojené s využitím analýz y sociálnych sietí. and With its wide range of applications, social network analysis has found its place in a number of scientific fields. In educational research, social network analysis has the potential to uncover and investigate yet unknown configurations of relationships among actors in education. This paper provides an introduction to the issues, techniques, and applications of social network analysis in educational research. It first surveys the basic terminolog y and concepts in social network analysis. Using the example of a small network, it demonstrates basic network calculations at the level of both the individual actors and the network as a whole. Furthermore, the paper provides a brief overview of studies in the field of educational research that have employed social network analysis. Using the example of a fictional classroom and five research questions, the main part of the paper demonstrates the application of social network analysis in educational research ranging from crosssectional descriptive analysis to dynamic inferential analysis. Step by step, it introduces a range of methods and interprets their results. In addition to centrality, clustering, and connectedness measures, the example contains permutation tests used for significance testing with network data, exponential random graph models (ERGM), and separable temporal exponential graph models (STERGM). Finally, the paper discusses challenges related to the application of social network analysis.