Journals Proceedings

Abstract

The features of the geological backgrounds of the civil engineering students of National Quemoy University Taiwan, create a morphology similar to that of a melting pot. Since other universities have limited social interactions with the students in Kinmen, the social life of the students can only be confined on the island so that the students form an ideal isolated population for social network study. This research explores the relationship between the academic performances and the social behaviors as well as the social and learning networks of 179 students of the Department of Civil and Engineering Management at the university. What is found is that the social networks do not become fragmented, but the number of cliques decreases for senior classes. This research depicts that living together during freshman year can be the most decisive factor, followed by participating in clubs and genders, in shaping students’ social lives within the next 3 years. The highly consistent performances in grades and attendance of clique members compared to the average of the entire class confirm the inevitable peer influence within the cliques. This research is a pilot study of applying network theorems on analyzing engineering student social networks so that the results can be utilized to devise student counseling and to improve the quality of teaching.