Understanding afterschool engagement: Investigating developmental outcomes for adolescents.

Though student engagement is hypothesized to be a factor in explaining student level differences in afterschool programs, the measurement of student engagement in this context is inconsistent, and findings from the small number of studies about how engagement impacts developmental and academic outcomes are mixed. In this study, we tested the factor structure of Wang and colleagues' school engagement scale with a sample of middle school students (N = 197) who attended an afterschool program in an urban setting. Results suggest that a bifactor model of engagement best fits the data, meaning that engagement consists of four specific factors (affective, behavioral, cognitive, social) and a global factor. We then used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between engagement, academic outcomes, and positive youth development (PYD). Results also showed positive associations with student mathematics achievement and PYD, but no significant associations were found between engagement and English achievement. This study provides a theoretically aligned way to measure engagement and evidence to support engagement as a key factor in predicting youth outcomes in an out-of-school context.

Using whiteboards to support college students' learning of complex physiological concepts.

Research underscores the importance of retrieval-based practice and application of knowledge for meaningful learning. However, the didactic lecture format continues to persist in traditional university physiology courses. A strategy called whiteboarding, where students use handheld dry erase boards and work in small groups to actively retrieve, discuss, and apply concepts presented in the lecture, has the potential to address challenges associated with actively engaging students in science courses for greater learning. The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the potential benefits of whiteboarding for increasing students' understanding of animal physiology concepts. Student performance on physiology questions assessing concepts taught using lecture only vs. concepts taught using lecture and whiteboarding were compared within the term that whiteboarding was used, as well as across whiteboard and lecture-only terms taught by the same instructor. Results showed that when whiteboarding was incorporated in the course, student performance on items that assessed concepts corresponding to the whiteboarding activities were significantly higher compared with performance on items that assessed concepts taught through lecture only. These patterns in student performance were found within and across terms. Taken together, findings point to whiteboarding as an effective tool that can be integrated in traditional lecture courses to promote students' understanding of physiology.