The social embeddedness of learning: Social network formation and academic achievement in an undergraduate student community

Background: Students play an active role in developing their social learning environment and peer relationships. Meanwhile, their academic behaviors are likely to be affected by their integration and individual positions in social networks. Despite the clear importance of social aspects on learning, the mechanisms shaping students’ social networks and the impact of emerging social ties on students’ academic performance remain underexplored. Aims: We investigate (1) the development of undergraduate students’ friendship and co-learning relationships, and (2) the influence of social embeddedness on students’ academic achievement. Sample: The sample consists of first-year students from two large STEM cohorts at a Swiss university: 𝑁 𝐴 = 2 2 5 , 𝑁 𝐵 = 6 2 5 . Methods: With longitudinal network data, we applied stochastic actor-oriented models to simultaneously examine the (co-)evolution of friendship and co-learning networks for each cohort while controlling for other network mechanisms on relationship formation. Furthermore, we implemented network autocorrelation models to examine the influence of social embeddedness on students’ first-year qualification exam GPAs. Results: The results revealed a mutual sustainability of co-learning and friendship ties, which were initially bridged by more generic positive social interactions. Furthermore, we found a significant association between students’ first-year grades and the average grades of their co-learners. This grade interdependency may be a joint outcome of peer selection and peer influence processes. Conclusion: Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the co-dynamic processes of undergraduate students’ co-learning and friendship networks and highlights the importance of social embeddedness in students’ academic performance.