Investigating Community of Practice Development During the Professional Development Summit Using Social Network Analysis

• In Event: Promoting Professional Development in Diverse Settings — Paper Session

Abstract

This study explores the pre-existing and development of a social network during a National Science Foundation (NSF) professional development summit by using social network analysis and statistical analysis. Data originated from 34 participants. We wanted to quantify the level of each attendee’s social network expansion by measuring the levels of relationship with others at the conference through pretest and posttest. This characterizes networked structures in terms of nodes (individual actors) and the ties, edges, or links (relationships or interactions) that connect them. These networks are visualized through sociograms that nodes are represented as points and ties are represented as lines. Results from sociograms visualization demonstrated that most of participants had significant expansion of their social-network through professional development summit.

Authors

• Anthony Petrosino, The University of Texas at Austin

• John Park, Penn State University

• Sunyoung Park, California Lutheran University