LOST Opportunities: Learning in Out-of-School Time (Explorations of Educational Purpose Book 23)

Learning in informal settings is attracting growing attention from policymakers and researchers, yet there remains, at the moment, a dearth of literature on the topic. Thus this volume, which examines how science and mathematics are experienced in everyday and out-of-school-time (OST) settings, makes an important contribution to the field of the learning sciences. Conducting research on OST learning requires us to broaden and deepen our conceptions of learning as well as to better identify the unique and common qualities of different learning settings. We must also find better ways to analyze the interplay between OST and school-based learning. In this volume, scholars develop theoretical structures that are useful not only for understanding learning processes, but also for helping to create and support new opportunities for learning, whether they are in or out of school, or bridging a range of settings. The chapters in this volume include studies of everyday and situated processes that facilitate science and mathematics learning. They also feature new theoretical and empirical frameworks for studying learning pathways that span both in- and out-of-school time and settings. Contributors also examine structured OST programs in which everyday and situated modes of learning are leveraged in support of more disciplined practices and conceptions of science and mathematics. Fortifying much of this work is a leading focus on educational equity-a desire to foster more socially supportive and intellectually engaging science and mathematics learning opportunities for youth from historically non-dominant communities. Full of compelling examples and revealing analysis, this book is a vital addition to the literature on a subject with a fast-rising profile. I believe that the studies represented in this volume will move our work forward as we seek to understand better which social ecologies support -- indeed, ratchet up -- learning and give meaning for youth, especially those from non-dominant communities. Kris Gutiérrez, University of Colorado at Boulder For someone who has long been interested in afterschool educational activities as a promising supplement to formal, in-school education, this book provides rich opportunities to think about the promise and the problems that such programs offer to those concerned with the infusion of science into the learning and development of their participants. Mike Cole, University of California, San Diego Learning in informal settings is attracting growing attention from policymakers and researchers, yet there remains, at the moment, a dearth of literature on the topic. Thus this volume, which examines how science and mathematics are experienced in everyday and out-of-school-time (OST) settings, makes an important contribution to the field of the learning sciences. Conducting research on OST learning requires us to broaden and deepen our conceptions of learning as well as to better identify the unique and common qualities of different learning settings. We must also find better ways to analyze the interplay between OST and school-based learning. In this volume, scholars develop theoretical structures that are useful not only for understanding learning processes, but also for helping to create and support new opportunities for learning, whether they are in or out of school, or bridging a range of settings. The chapters in this volume include studies of everyday and situated processes that facilitate science and mathematics learning. They also feature new theoretical and empirical frameworks for studying learning pathways that span both in- and out-of-school time and settings. Contributors also examine structured OST programs in which everyday and situated modes of learning are leveraged in support of more disciplined practices and conceptions of science and mathematics. Fortifying much of this work is a leading focus on educational equity-a desire to foster more socially supportive and intellectually engaging science and mathematics learning opportunities for youth from historically non-dominant communities. Full of compelling examples and revealing analysis, this book is a vital addition to the literature on a subject with a fast-rising profile. I believe that the studies represented in this volume will move our work forward as we seek to understand better which social ecologies support -- indeed, ratchet up -- learning and give meaning for youth, especially those from non-dominant communities. Kris Gutiérrez, University of Colorado at Boulder For someone who has long been interested in afterschool educational activities as a promising supplement to formal, in-school education, this book provides rich opportunities to think about the promise and the problems that such programs offer to those concerned with the infusion of science into the learning and development of their participants. Mike Cole, University of California, San Diego Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction: What Counts as Math and Science?....Pages 3-6 Math I Am: What We Learn from Stories That People Tell About Math in Their Lives....Pages 7-27 What Counts as Science in Everyday and Family Interactions?....Pages 29-48 What Counts as Mathematics When “We All Use Math Every Day”? A Look at NUMB3RS ....Pages 49-63 What Counts Too Much and Too Little as Math....Pages 65-83 When Is Mathematics, and Who Says So?: A Commentary on Part I....Pages 85-91 Front Matter....Pages 93-93 Introduction: Understanding How and Why People Learn Across Settings as an Educational Equity Strategy....Pages 95-98 Creating Within and Across Life Spaces: The Role of a Computer Clubhouse in a Child’s Learning Ecology....Pages 99-118 Discovering and Supporting Successful Learning Pathways of Youth In and Out of School: Accounting for the Development of Everyday Expertise Across Settings....Pages 119-140 Doing Science with Others at Preschool and at Home: A Comparison of Contextually Situated Interactional Configurations and Their Implications for Learning....Pages 141-165 Shifting Languages, Spaces, and Learner Identities: Learning Mathematics After School....Pages 167-186 Expanding Methodologies to Account for Expansive Views of Learning: A Commentary on Part II....Pages 187-191 Front Matter....Pages 193-193 Introduction: STEM in the Organized Out-of-School Time Setting....Pages 195-200 Out-of-School Time STEM: It’s Not What You Think....Pages 201-217 Examining Youth’s Mathematics Practices in an After-School Robotics Team....Pages 219-231 After-School: An Innovative Model to Better Understand the Mathematics Learning of Latinas/os....Pages 233-249 Teacher Development in After-School Mathematics Contexts: Insights from Projects that Capitalize on Latinas/os’ Linguistic and Cultural Resources....Pages 251-263 How Hands-On Implicitly Informs “What Counts” as Science....Pages 265-278 Thoughts on Science Education During the After-School Hours: A Commentry on Part III....Pages 279-282 Back Matter....Pages 283-297 Examining ways that science and mathematics are experienced in everyday and out-of-school-time (OST) settings, this book contributes to the learning sciences and helps to shows how OST programs can support educational equity