Youth Beliefs About Where “Real” Learning Occurs: Life-Wide Versus School-Centric Views

• In Event: Evolution of Learning and Programming in the Out-of-School Time Field

Abstract

Through a mixed methods study with 149 youth attending a neighborhood-based program, we investigated adolescents' learning localization beliefs; their views on how well they learn across multiple settings and about the relative importance of school learning (vs. learning elsewhere). Age predicted learning localization such that older youth tended to hold more lifewide and less school-centric views. Both lifewide learning beliefs and school-centric views positively predicted school belonging.

Authors

• Thomas Akiva, University of Pittsburgh

• Christy Suzanne Galletta Horner, University of Pittsburgh

• Jacqueline Schall, University of Pittsburgh