A Complex Systems Approach to Student Collaboration Avoidance

Student collaboration has become a focal point of physics and engineering education as institutions strive to prepare STEM students for the workforce. Student collaboration also brings many educational benefits that enhance learning. In spite of many interventions instructors and programs use to encourage collaboration, students often choose not to work with their peers. Research studying this problem tends to offer one or two potential explanatory factors, like personal preferences or engineering culture. This limited explanatory focus prevents the construction of a complex systems account of student behavior that emphasizes how multiple factors contributing to student decision making can influence each other or overlap. As part of an ongoing study to understand how students navigate dilemmas in their coursework, we found a common phenomenon of collaboration avoidance, which was not well explained by any one factor. We analyze interview data from two students, Ashley and Sypha, whose decisions about whether or not to collaborate with their peers emerged from a confluence of factors, such as engineering culture, course structures, social norms, and personal preferences. This research can inform instructional interventions aimed at supporting student collaborations.

Supported by NSF award #2142461