This study examines the relationship between Japanese children's inquiry skills and their participation in various after-school programs. Inquiry skills--encompassing the ability to explore, analyze, and synthesize information--are essential competencies in 21st-century education. However, limited research has explored how different types of…

Societal changes during the last few decades have given rise to the expansion of extended systems in nations across the world. Despite differences regarding age groups and relations to compulsory school, the task of extended education is primarily to provide participants with possibilities to learn general or specific content and foster their'…

Despite the success of informal STEM programs, one ongoing challenge is sustaining learners' interest beyond the programs' initial impact (Morris et al., 2019). Although some longitudinal studies suggest that such programs can have a lasting impact on girls in STEM (e.g., McCreedy & Dierking, 2013), further research is needed to identify the…

The Texas Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) is the program administered through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants. The Texas ACE Foundation Communities Cycle 9 program is composed of a compilation of activities at 3 AISD campuses that provide a comprehensive range of…

There is an increasing awareness of out-of-school program value in enhancing student interest and understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study examined the impact of an out-of-school STEM education program on student attitudes toward STEM disciplines and STEM careers. A STEM education program implemented at…

When the pandemic forced schools across the country to close their doors in March 2020, many district and school leaders worked quickly to plan for and address students' "unfinished learning." How would they support students who had been exposed to content, but had not yet had a chance to master it? Research supports two ways schools can…

This paper presents a case study on six elementary school teachers' perceived learning in a professional development program where teachers facilitated an integrated STEM robotics activity in an afterschool setting. Teacher reflections and interviews data were analyzed for themes. The findings revealed teachers' positive growth in the following…

This article describes three interdisciplinary events held outside of the classroom to examine social psychological concepts in the criminal justice system, with undergraduate students enrolled in criminal justice and psychology courses. These events can most accurately be described as using a synthetic interdisciplinary approach, in which the…

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) Ready to Learn project, "Hero Elementary," has an emphasis on reaching Latino communities and supporting the needs of children with disabilities. The project embeds the expectations of kindergarten to 2nd grade science standards into a series of…

"You Can't Be What You Can't See" presents a rare longitudinal account of the benefits of a high-quality, out-of-school program on the life trajectories of hundreds of poor, African American youth who grew up in Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project in the 1980s and early '90s. The result of a five-year research project by…

In this study, it was aimed to determine the remarks of teacher candidates on the place and importance of out of school learning environments in Social Studies education. Phenomenological method, which is one of the qualitative research designs, was used in this study. The work group of the study consists of 73 teacher candidates who conduct out…

While data for the 2020 edition of America After 3PM were collected pre-pandemic, to accompany the data and determine how the pandemic has affected families' needs during the hours after school, the Afterschool Alliance commissioned a nationally representative follow-up survey of parents in October 2020. The follow-up survey found that afterschool…

As more stakeholders get involved in the effort to engage youth in STEM outside of school, afterschool providers are being asked to document a wide range of outcomes, from generating interest in STEM to improving standardized test scores in math and science and to increasing the number of students who pursue STEM majors in college. This issue has…

Given the promising role afterschool programs can play in addressing the inequities faced by families living in communities of concentrated poverty, and with the rise in the number of people living in communities of concentrated poverty, this special "America After 3PM" report examines the afterschool program experience of children and…

Findings from "America After 3PM" document the role that afterschool programs play in supporting families living in high-poverty areas by answering questions about what afterschool program participation looks like, what the demand for afterschool programs is, what is preventing parents from taking advantage of and children from…