This article describes the "In Addition" afterschool mathematics program and the pressures it faced due to standardized testing and homework. In addition aims to go beyond worksheets and drills to engage student's curiosity and help show them that mathematics is relevant to their lives outside the classroom.
Practitioner research fellowships help transform out-of-school-time practitioners from consumers of others’ research to makers of knowledge based on their own experience and practices.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah HillSusan Matloff-NievesLena Townsend
This article from Afterschool Matters explores the challenge of engaging boys in writing. Loeper examines the difference between "engagement" and "flow", providing generalizable lessons for fostering engagement in out of school time activities.
Research on middle school participants’ engagement in afterschool programs shows that such programs often serve as developmental contexts for promoting “flow” experiences. Compared to when they are in other settings after school, participants in afterschool programs are more likely to experience high concentrated effort and intrinsic motivation, experiences consistent with Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow. Organized sports, arts enrichment, and academic enrichment activities were found to be particularly engaging program activities, in contrast to homework completion. The importance of high
This document describes the Dimensions of Success (DoS), an assessment tool created by researchers at the Program in Education, Afterschool, and Resiliency (PEAR). DoS was created to help out-of-school time programs and researchers monitor and measure quality. It allows observers to collect systemic data along 12 quality indicators to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of afterschool science learning experiences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Anahit PapazianAshima ShahCaitlin Rufo-McCormick
The ability to set and work toward goals is not inborn. This study examines how an afterschool program worked to help elementary-age children learn goal-setting strategies.
A personal essay by a former public school teacher in the Teach for America program highlights the differences between school and afterschool education.
The common but under-researched practice of hiring participants as afterschool program staff presents unique challenges but has clear advantages for programs, participant staff members, and communities.
Studies of the effects of afterschool programs on student learning have yielded equivocal findings. This paper argues that such findings stem from weak conceptualizations of the relationship between afterschool programming and learning. The authors use socio-cultural learning theory to reveal specific dimensions of afterschool programs that have positive impact on learning, drawing on almost 200 documents from the afterschool literature to substantiate and elaborate these dimensions. Findings illuminate why afterschool programs that provide “more school after school” significantly limit
Although stakeholders agree that afterschool STEM education can be powerful, there is less agreement on the critical question of which aspects of STEM education the afterschool field is best positioned to support. Hence, in spring 2012, the Afterschool Alliance undertook a study to ask afterschool stakeholders what aspects of STEM learning the field is best positioned to support. The aim of the Afterschool STEM Outcomes Study was to identify consensus views on appropriate and feasible outcomes and indicators for afterschool STEM programs. The study provides a realistic vision of the field’s
Few studies focus on afterschool interventions for Asian-American young people. This article presents research documenting effects of afterschool participation on high school students from Hmong communities with implications for policy and practice.
This paper will provide program leaders and staff with a brief overview of what is known about physical activity in afterschool programs. Then, by integrating experience in afterschool programming with expertise in health promotion, physical education, physical activity promotion, public health, and the social psychology of sport and physical activity, we will present strategies and recommendations for promoting physical activity in afterschool settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Aaron BeighleMichael BeetsHeather ErwinJennifer HubertyJustin MooreMegan Stellino