Background: South African learners face the double disadvantage of living in low socioeconomic conditions with access to few resources and attending schools with challenging learning conditions. Mathematics performance reflects such conditions with extreme performance gaps between wealthier and poorer learners. The need for early intervention is…

Due to lack of time in physical education class as well as the decreased amount of physical education class students have a week, students are not receiving adequate amounts of daily physical activity. This article describes a solution to this problem, by describing an after-school weightlifting program where students can learn how to do…

Often, parents seek out afterschool programs for supervision, educational, and enrichment opportunities. The staff employed with these programs are often undereducated and not well trained to assist students with homework or understand the students' emotional and social guidance needs. The literature review regarding afterschool program training…

Numerous STEM agencies and advocacy groups posit that Outside of (regular) School Time (OST) STEM opportunities spur middle school students' learning, especially in fostering students' interests in and motivations for STEM. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sources of students' interest in and motivation for STEM while participating…

This book illuminates the lived experience of a group of primary school children engaged in virtual world play during a year-long after-school club. Shaped by post-structuralist theory and New Literacy Studies, it outlines a playful, participatory and emergent methodological approach, referred to as 'rhizomic ethnography'. This 'hybrid' text uses…

The phenomena of connection, competence, and self-efficacy have not been explored in the context of an after-school girls club. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of nine girls engaged in a quilting project in an after-school program for expressions of connection, competence, and self-efficacy using a feminist quilting…

Background: In this paper, we extend findings from previous iterations of a design-based project called ThinkerSpaces design studios that promotes human-centred design among children. ThinkerSpaces design studios is a play-based afterschool club that follows principles of embedded design by prioritising learner agency, exploration and ongoing…

Background: This practice paper exemplifies a systematic approach used to learn about existing mental well-being programs for youth 11-14 years to inform curriculum development for after-school settings. Methods: We reviewed 3389 mental well-being programs from publicly accessed databases and conducted a content analysis using inductive and…

Purpose: In the United States, after-school programs have been found to improve healthy behaviors and increase time in safe, structured environments for youth, but less is known about Latin American contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of an educational program in an underserved school in Latin America. Method: A…

This study investigated the effect of humor in religious stories on a child's ability to remember, understand, and paraphrase content, as well as on enjoyment. Ages of the children were also considered. Participants watched one of two videos teaching the story of Saul's conversion found in Acts 9:1-22. Although inclusion of humor did not have a…

Opportunities for collaborative learning reflect positive peer processes that have strong implications for adolescents' developmental experiences in afterschool programs (ASPs). However, collaborative learning, which involves considering multiple viewpoints and coordinating actions with peers to accomplish a shared goal, is often difficult for…

Increased political and research interest in extracurricular activities stems, in part, from the claim that these programs especially benefit disadvantaged youth. However, little literature has synthesized studies across types of disadvantage to assess this claim. This article reviews research on disadvantaged youth in extracurricular programs,…

Engagement in afterschool programs is a growing area of interest for both researchers and practitioners. Though there is an emerging body of research investigating this construct, we lack an understanding of how specific dimensions of engagement are endorsed in different ways among subgroups of students. Little is known about the sources and…

This document is an analysis of the problems facing public school string education and what is actively being done currently to help with the problems. It catalogs the issues of teacher retention, teacher recruitment and failure to reach underserved populations. This document also examines what current solutions are in place such as after school…

This study presents findings from a randomized controlled trial of an afterschool program intended to develop mathematics identity for students from grades 4 and 5 in groups underrepresented in STEM. Mathematics identity refers to the ways that students think about themselves in relation to mathematics and the extent to which they have developed a…