Student classroom friendships: Their positive and negative impacts, and our responsibilities

University student classroom friendships have a variety of both positive and negative impacts. On the positive side, such friendships may motivate attendance, increase participation in and enjoyment of class exercises, and offer social and task support for learning activities and assignments. Conversely, university classroom friendships may have costs such as increased risks of social loafing and increased distraction, plagiarism, and setting norms for underperformance. In this roundtable discussion of student classroom friendships, we will overview key findings, and use vignettes to facilitate a discussion of potential impacts, as well as our role, responsibilities and opportunities as educators vis-à-vis such friendships.