Peer interaction networks in classroom settings: An analytical focus on structure of investigating school-based interventions.

Abstract

Prosocial skills are an important factor in interacting with other people. For most children, school is such an arena where socialization takes place and where learning prosocial behavior is important to develop friendships and acquire academic skills in collaboration with other classmates. A widely used intervention to teach desired behaviors among children in school is the Good Behavior Game (GBG). The first article is a scope review of peer-reviewed articles from the years 2011 to 2021 on the topic of the GBG and the stated role of peers in the program’s effects on prosocial behavior. Results showed that the topic did not appear in a clear way in many studies, prevailing an individual-level analysis of behavior change. The second article explores how social network analysis can help uncover network structures among students in an elementary school class. 19 pupils were interviewed at to time points during a school semester, and their answers were plotted in the network analysis software UCINET 6 and analyzed in a Social Network framework. The results showed fragmented structures in the networks analyzed. These network structures can contribute to the understanding of the role of peers in the development of social skills. It is discussed how knowledge gained by using Social Network Analysis can contribute to making the behavioral analytic work done in the Good Behavior Game even more targeted and effective