Source of Knowledge Dynamics—Transition from High School to University

Abstract

The paper addresses the dynamics of education by using Markov chains, a powerful probabilistic model able to make predictions on how sources of knowledge either change or stabilize over adulthood. To this end, each student filled in a survey that rated, on a scale from 1 to 5, the utility of five different sources of knowledge. They completed this survey twice, once for their previous and once for their current education. The authors then fitted a Markov chain to these data—essentially, calculating transition probabilities from one ranking of sources of knowledge to another—and inferred the final maximum utility sources of knowledge via the stationary distribution. The overall conclusion is the following: even if the professor used to play a crucial role in early development, students have the tendency to become independent in their learning process, relying more on online materials and less on printed books and libraries.