DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.643298

Summary
The analysis on student retention by including the complexity thinking in exploratory factor analysis and multidimensional scaling is presented in the article. The student retention issue is formulated as a complex system with parameters that represent curriculum, financial and social support system, sense of belonging, motivation to complete the program. The authors provide an overview of previous research used to model student retention and conceptual framework that consists of complex thinking, exploratory factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, and network theory components. The questionnaires filled by the first-year physics and related engineering students at Swedish university were used as data. Due to the limited amount of data the results were used to only demonstrate how the complex theory approach can help to interpret data, identify emerging structures, nonlinear connections, and dynamics in the student retention analysis.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The article presents complex thinking approach to model student retention in the subjects of physics and engineering education. The complex system is presented as decentralized network structure with continuously changing components in the interaction with the external environment. The analysis of such system requires a range of methods. In the example provided in this article, exploratory factor analysis, multidimensional scaling and network theory was used to visualize the structure and dynamics of student retention based of the students’ attitudes towards their program and their financial stability as components of the complex system. The example demonstrates that complex thinking provides new insights to the real-life problems and items should not be considered as having direct influence but more influencing indirectly through the other items in the dynamics of several complex systems.

Point of Strength
The point of strength of this article is the presented application of complex thinking to model student retention in the areas of physics and engineering education. This is a good example of that complex thinking is required in solving problems of everyday life.