Students who interact or work in groups are more likely to be successful in his college classes, according to a study published Jan.30 in the scientific journal Nature Scientific.
The researchers analyzed 80.000 interactions between 290 college students in a collaborative learning environment. The main finding was that a higher number of interactions was generally an indicator of better grades. The best students were also more likely to form strong connections with other students and exchanged information in more complex ways. These types of students tend to form cliques and block low-achieving students. Students who were excluded were not only more likely to have lower grades, they were also more likely to drop out of classes altogether.
These elite students form the groups the first days of the course. Less able students go to great lengths to join these elite groups retrospectively, but their efforts are in vain. This exclusion feeds back their poor grades.
«For the first time, we have shown that there is a very strong correspondence between social interaction and information exchange (a correlation of 72%) »said Manuel Cebrián, one of those responsible for the study.