Network analyses in pedagogics: A survey of methods and applications

In order to illustrate the potential of the until now hardly applied method of empirical network analyses with regard to pedagogical research, the authors start by relating the basic supposition of the network method-namely the reciprocal influencing of human action and social context-to socio-cultural learning theories. The significance of the network analysis lies in that it allows to methodologically grasp the social component of learning through the analysis of social relations. The authors then go on to sketch both the method of the social network analysis and the method of the egocentric network analysis, focusing on their link to pedagogical theories and on their procedures of evaluation. On the basis of diverse examples of application from different fields of pedagogics, the transfer to the practice of pedagogical research is established.