Abstract
This chapter reports findings from a national study of 16 different multiyear out-of-school-time (OST) science programs. As several authors included in this volume have noted, the designed after-school/out-of-school-time space constitutes a sort of hybrid space – it is not school and it is not home. There are both structured and unstructured dimensions to it, and patterns of interaction in the programs vary widely. These variations occur across different programs and also within a given program according to the time of year or the time of day. For example, some programs may offer unstructured playtime as well as structured homework supervision or activity time. Some programs may be primarily worksheet driven for part of the year and primarily outdoors during other times.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Our definition of staff preparation includes content background, familiarity with the activities, teaching experience, as well as time to plan and transition from the school day to the after-school day.
- 2.
These capacities are based on the NRC 2007 “strands” of disciplinary expertise (entailing understanding of scientific concepts, practices, epistemologies, and endeavors). We call out four others that our studies found were specific contributions OST programs make, such as the ways in which OST learning opportunities sometimes operate simply to stimulate curiosity and wonder, how they can elucidate the relevance of science to young people’s lives, and how they can provide access to scientific instruments and also to symbolic representations that might not be included in the standard curriculum. The NRC 2009 “strands” for informal environments added interest and identity to the 2007 set; however, we hold that interest and identity are not strands of science but rather dynamic and situated properties of the developing person who meets and engages in science.
References
Afterschool Alliance. (2005). Afterschool issue overview. Retrieved December 20, 2005, from http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/after_over.cfm
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Banks, J. A., Au, K. H., Ball, A. F., Bell, P., Gordon, E. W., Gutiérrez, K. D., et al. (2007). Learning in and out of school in diverse environments. Seattle, WA: The LIFE Center and the Center for Multicultural Education, University of Washington.
Barron, B. (2006). Interest and self-sustained learning as catalysts of development: A learning ecology perspective. Human Development, 49, 193–224.
Bevan, B., Dillon, J., Hein, G. E., MacDonald, M., Michalchik, V., Miller, D., et al. (2010). Making science matter: Collaborations between informal science education organizations and schools. Washington DC: Center for Advancement of lnformal Science Education.
Bodilly, S., & Beckett, M. K. (2005). Making out-of-school time matter. Santa Monica, California: RAND Corporation.
Bransford, J. D., Barron, B., Pea, R. D., Meltzoff, A., Kuhl, P., Bell, P., et al. (2006). Foundations and opportunities for an interdisciplinary science of learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 19–34). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2001). The bioecological theory of human development. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (Vol. 10, pp. 6963–6970). New York: Elsevier.
Chi, B., Freeman, J., & Lee, S. (2008). Science in afterschool market research study. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California.
Coalition for Science After School. (2007). Science in after-school: A blueprint for action. New York: Lawrence Hall of Science and Exploratorium.
Cole, M. (2006). The fifth dimension: An after-school program built on diversity. New York: Russell Sage.
Fadigan, K. A., & Hammrich, P. L. (2004). A longitudinal study of the educational and career trajectories of female participants of an urban informal science education program. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41(8), 835–860.
Furman, M., & Barton, A. C. (2006). Capturing urban student voices in the creation of a science mini-documentary. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43(7), 667–694.
Fusco, D. (2001). Creating relevant science through urban planning and gardening. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(8), 860–877.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano-Lopez, P., & Tejeda, C. (2000). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, culture, and activity, 6(4), 286–303.
Halpern, R. (1999). After-school programs for low-income children: Promise and challenges. The Future of Children, 9(2), 81–95.
Halpern, R. (2002). A different kind of child development institution: The history of after-school programs for low-income children. Teachers College Record, 104(2), 178–211.
Halpern, R. (2006). Confronting the big lie: The need to reframe expectations of afterschool programs. New York: Partnership for After School Education.
Herrenkohl, L. R., & Mertl, V. (2010). How students come to be, know, and do: A case for a broad view of learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hidi, S., & Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 111–127.
Honig, M., & McDonald, M. (2005). From promise to participation: Afterschool programs through the lens of socio-cultural learning theory. New York: The Robert Bowne Foundation.
Hull, G., & Greeno, J. G. (2006). Identity and agency in nonschool and school worlds. In Z. Bekerman, N. C. Burbules, & D. Silberman-Keller (Eds.), Learning in places: The informal education reader (pp. 77–97). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
James-Burdumy, S., Dynarski, M., Moore, M., Deke, J., Mansfield, W., & Pistorino, C. (2005). When schools stay open late: The national evaluation of the 21st century Community Learning Centers program: Final report. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance.
Larson, R. W. (2000). Toward a psychology of positive youth development. The American Psychologist, 55(1), 170–183.
Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (2003). Positive youth development: Thriving as a basis of personhood and civil society. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 172–180.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Mahoney, J. L., Larson, R. W., Eccles, J. S., & Lord, H. (Eds.). (2005). Organized activities as developmental contexts for children and adolescents. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
McLaughlin, M. W. (2000). Community counts: How youth organizations matter for youth development. Washington, DC: Public Education Network.
Nasir, N. S., Rosebery, A. S., Warren, B., & Lee, C. D. (2006). Learning as a cultural process: Achieving equity through diversity. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 567–580). New York: Cambridge University Press.
National Academies of Sciences Committee on Science Learning K-8. (2007). Taking science to school: Learning and teaching science in grades K-8 (Prepublication Copy: Uncorrected Proofs ed.). Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
National Research Council. (1996). National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Research Council. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Research Council. (2009). Learning science in informal environments: People, places, and pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academy Press.
Nocon, H., & Cole, M. (2006). School’s invasion of “after-school”: Colonization, rationalization, or expansion of access? In Z. Bekerman, N. Burbules, & D. Silberman-Keller (Eds.), Learning in places: The informal education reader. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Rahm, J. (2007). Learning and becoming across time and space: A look at learning trajectories within and across two inner-city youth community science programs. In W.-M. Roth & K. Tobin (Eds.), Science, learning, identity: Sociocultural and cultural-historical perspectives (pp. 63–80). Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Sawyer, R. K. (2006). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Stetsenko, A. (2009). Personhood: An activist project of historical becoming through collaborative pursuits of social transformation. New ideas in psychology.
Vandell, D. L., Reisner, E. R., Pierce, K. M., Brown, B. B., Lee, D., Bolt, D., et al. (2006). The study of promising after-school programs: Examination of longer term outcomes after two years of program experiences. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Vygotsky, L. S. (2004 ). The essential Vygotsky. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Acknowledgments
Work on this project and the analysis for this chapter come from the entire research team, which includes the authors, Ruchi Bhanot, Julie Remold, and Patrick Shields from SRI International and Noah Rauch and Robert Semper from the Exploratorium. This chapter describes work conducted as part of the Center for Informal Learning and Schools and the Academies for Young Scientists, supported in part by the National Science Foundation (Grants ESI-0119787 and DRL-0639656). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bevan, B., Michalchik, V. (2013). Out-of-School Time STEM: It’s Not What You Think. In: Bevan, B., Bell, P., Stevens, R., Razfar, A. (eds) LOST Opportunities. Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4304-5_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4304-5_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4303-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4304-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)