Designing an After-School Studio: Engaging Children in Real-World Problems

• In Event: Roundtable Session 62
  In Roundtable Session: Youth Work: Examining Empowered Spaces

Abstract

A design-based study led in three years to a near-stable, principle-based design for an after-school educational program at a multi-site Boys and Girls Club. The resultant KIDS Studio program engages children in four core processes—knowing, innovating, designing, sharing—in relation to real-world problems. The researchers promoted self-regulation: goal setting, tracking of progress, and collaboration. The children valued: choosing problems; building prototypes; celebratory sharing of their work with their guardians and peers; and using an online knowledge-building database, photos, video, and audio recording to support the core processes. A two-site experiment with a shared online space extended the design to inter-studio collaboration to justify funding a larger experiment. The greatest challenge remains sustainability—embedding the program fully in club culture.

Authors

• William John Egnatoff, Queen's University - Kingston

• Richard J. Reeve, Queen's University