Since social networks analysis in education offers valuable insights into social structures and social dynamics that shapes individuals behaviors and information storage and transmission, it has become a hot topic in educational science studies. The aim of this study is to examine the educational sciences studies conducted at higher education…

Purpose: Design-based research (DBR) involves multiple iterations, and innovations are needed in analytical methods for understanding how learners experience a learning experience in ways that both embrace the complexity of learning and allow for data-driven changes to the design of the learning experience between iterations. The purpose of this…

Information literacy is a core research topic in the field of library and information science. The developmental context of this field can be examined through a long-term retrospective analysis of relevant literature. This study explored the research trends and potential research issues in the top 100 most frequently cited articles on information…

The paper provides an overview of the global research on graduate education. The study applied a combination of a bibliometric and social network analysis methods to bibliographic data from Thompson Reuters' Web of Science. More specifically, a keyword search approach was used to retrieve 2,454 articles on graduate education from 1996 until 2020.…

Background/Context: Social network methodology is particularly relevant to the types of social structures found in education research. The current study develops a finite mixture approach for clustering ensembles of networks (NetMix). Following a structural equation modeling framework, NetMix simultaneously estimates a measurement model comprised…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely explored across the world over the past decades. A particularly emerging topic is the application of AI in e-learning (AIeL) to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning in precision education. This study aims to systematically review publication patterns for AIeL research with a focus on…

In this article we draw on actor-network theory (ANT) in order to challenge the methodological and empirical orthodoxies of anthropocentrism and interactionism that have long informed dominant discourses of ethnographic work. We use ANT to open new possibilities for understanding education as emergent in relational fields where non-human forces…

The complex dynamical systems (CDS) approach consists of a family of theories emanating largely from the exact sciences. These theories share a common focus on the behavior of systems and their interrelated parts and are concerned with the processes of stability, change, and unpredictability in those systems. This article takes stock of the…

Lately, new materialism has been proposed as a theoretical framework to better understand material-dialogic relationships in learning, and concurrently network analysis has emerged as a method in science education research. This paper explores how to include materiality in network analysis and reports the development of a method to construct…

Social network analysis (SNA) is becoming a prevalent method in education research and practice. But criticism has been voiced against the heavy reliance on quantification within SNA. Recent work suggests combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in SNA--mixed methods social network analysis (MMSNA)--as a remedy. MMSNA is helpful for…

Following repeated calls to ground the research surrounding distance education in theory, we engaged in a bibliometric exploration of the extant literature in order to determine the degree to which the field has been responsive to these calls. We focused on describing the trends -- theoretical as well as methodological -- of recent (2014-2018)…

The progressively global, neoliberal, privatised, and digital education environment poses new methodological challenges for educational researchers, prompting a need to innovate. It has been suggested, however, that better commentary and reflection on methodological innovation in education is required. This paper considers the benefits and…

This chapter presents an innovative, cross-disciplinary methodological approach to systematically reviewing and comparing large bodies of literature using big data, Natural Language Processing, network analysis, and supplementary qualitative analysis. The approach is demonstrated through an analysis of the literature surrounding four common…

This article proposes an analytical consideration for social capital research in education by exploring a pragmatic combination of social network analysis (SNA) and symbolic interactionism (SI) as a research method. The article first delineates the theoretical linkages of social capital theory with SNA and SI. The article then discusses how SNA…

Published annually since 1985, the Handbook series provides a compendium of thorough and integrative literature reviews on a diverse array of topics of interest to the higher education scholarly and policy communities. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of research findings on a selected topic, critiques the research literature in terms…