Abstracts - Earli

more willing to approach the teacher and teachers tolerate more noise. On the other hand thiscould indicate that in larger groups children receive less space and opportunity to act out. Teachersmight interpret this as more agreeable and emotionally more stable. Further analyses need to beexecuted on the development of social behavior from grade 1 to 4 and the differential effects.Social cohesion in multicultural classrooms: interethnic contact in social networksGabriel Horenczyk, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, IsraelJanna Fortuin, Leiden University, NetherlandsPaul Vedder, Leiden University, NetherlandsAlthough much research in the past decade has concentrated on peer relations, this research hasmostly focused on peer relations in the form of (best and/or reciprocated) friendships andsociometric status. Research into the broader form of peer relations, social networks, has beenrelatively sparse, mainly due to the statistical problems surrounding the analysis of social networkdata. These social networks seem important to study, because they are the prime setting wheresocialization can occur and social competence can develop. Presently, new techniques areavailable, both for network identification and analysis of network data, that can be used to studyinteresting phenomena such as which factors govern selection of peers for social networks. It iswell known that ethnic background is one of the selection factors for friendships during child andadolescent years. The question is whether this selection effect occurs as strongly within socialnetworks. This was explored in a Dutch sample of 8th graders. Ethnic identity played an importantrole in the selection of peers for social networks. However, a lot of the networks were multi-ethnicin make-up, supporting a view that integration does take place in Dutch schools during peerinteractions.O 301 September 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 0.87 MarxSIG Invited SymposiumQualitative methods in the exploration of students’ knowledge andlearningChair: Leo Gürtler, University of Education Weingarten, GermanyOrganiser: Florian C. Haerle, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USADiscussant: Michaela Glaeser-Zikuda, University of Education Ludwigsburg, GermanyNot often is the nature of learning and instruction explored by the means of qualitative researchmethodologies. This is surprising as qualitative approaches can provide a variety of perspectiveson, and in-depth understanding of, student knowledge and learning processes in classroomsettings. The aim of this symposium is to compare and contrast four different qualitative methodsin the exploration of student knowledge and learning. The first method focuses on software-basedconcept mapping as an additional interview step to allow for data reduction and member checkingwith the interviewee at the same time. Second, “intentional analysis” is introduced as a methodthat aims at descriptions of through what context an object, question or task is interpreted by thestudent. Third, the study of qualitative differences in student learning is investigated with a“phenomenographic approach”. Finally, a method of video analysis is demonstrated that taps into– 774 –