The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
HFRP
> Out-of-School Time
> OST Database & Bibliography
> Database
> Fifth Dimension/University-Community Links
> Evaluation #4 by UCSB (1997-1998): What Is Learned in an After-School Computer Club?
A Profile of the Evaluation of Fifth Dimension/University-Community Links
Profile Information
- Full Text (HTML)
- How to cite
- About the OST Database
Program Description
| Overview | The Fifth Dimension/University-Community (UC) Links is an approach to after school programming used by Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs and YWCAs, recreation centers, and public schools across America, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and Russia. It provides a way to increase the educational programming of such institutions without substantially increasing the costs of operation. Beginning in 1986, the overarching goals of the Fifth Dimension approach were to: (1) create sustainable activity systems that increase understanding of the cultural mediation of mind and the processes of cognitive and social development, (2) provide contexts for children to master knowledge and skills mediating changes in their everyday practices, (3) deepen understanding of how the social and individual create each other, and to (4) provide a context in which undergraduates from disciplines such as teacher education, developmental psychology, and communications have opportunities to connect theory with practice and deliver services to children. In 1996 the University of California Office of the President provided seed funding to expand this model throughout California. The UC Links network was established to promote the university eligibility and academic preparedness of underserved youth throughout California using the practices developed by Fifth Dimension programs worldwide. The intent was to broaden the base of K–12 learning, by providing access to educational resources to those youth who are not yet on the path to higher education. The statewide program has three major objectives: (1) to improve the educational opportunities and aspirations for diverse California youth from low-income communities throughout the state, so that more of them will become eligible for the University of California in years to come, (2) to improve undergraduate education by providing living laboratories where students can integrate theory and practice, and (3) to pioneer new ways of collaborating that bring together institutions like universities, communities, and K–12 schools in long-term, sustainable programs for underserved K–12 youth. |
| Start Date | 1986 |
| Scope | international |
| Type | after school |
| Location | urban, suburban, rural |
| Setting | community-based organization, public school, recreation center |
| Participants | elementary, middle, and high school students (ages 5–18) |
| Number of Sites/Grantees | over 50 worldwide sites (2003) |
| Number Served | The number of children per site will vary according to setting. In a public school setting, as many as 80 children may be served in any week. |
| Components | Fifth Dimension programs take place in a computer club that may or may not be associated with the child's school and are located near university campuses since most are affiliated with colleges and universities. Participants are often from low-income homes and many attend on a regular basis through high school. At some sites, high schoolers who attended return and act as mentors for the younger children. Children typically visit a Fifth Dimension on a drop-in basis, although in most public school Fifth Dimensions children attend on a daily basis. Some children spend four to six hours per week of after school time participating in the Fifth Dimension, while others may come once a week for a few hours. Opportunities and constraints vary across locations, seasons, populations, and sites. Many children enter the Fifth Dimension directly after school or homework sessions. The main activities center around off-the-shelf educational programs selected for appropriateness, appeal, and educational value. In a prototype Fifth Dimension system (local names vary), a dozen or more children encounter a large variety of computer games, noncomputer games, and telecommunications activities on a regular basis over the course of a school year. As a rule, Fifth Dimensions contain a variety of kinds of computers at a ratio of one computer for every two to three children. Computer games, such as Carmen San Diego and the Secret Island of Dr. Brain, the Magic School Bus series, and noncomputer games, such as Origami, chess, and Boggle are a part of a make-believe activity system. Task cards that accompany each game or activity enable children and their mentors to negotiate goals for playing games and coordinate activities. Learning is collaborative with children often working together or with adult mentors called Wizard's Assistants. Students with extensive experience are given the opportunity to achieve the status of Young Assistant to the Wizard. The child's participation is voluntary and self-paced; there is no traditional teacher-student structure. Each Fifth Dimension has a site coordinator who is trained to recognize and support Fifth Dimension's pedagogical ideals and curricular materials. Undergraduate students are there to learn and play with the children. The site coordinator monitors the balance of education and play in interactions between children and undergraduates. |
| Funding Level | varies by local program |
| Funding Source | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided funding for field-testing and evaluation of the original three programs begun in 1986. In 1996 the University of California Office of the President began funding the UC Links network of after school programs in California. Each local Fifth Dimension program negotiates operating resources from the university, community participants, and other outside funding agencies. |
Evaluation
| Overview | Evaluators developed collaborations for evaluation at three Fifth Dimension sites: Appalachian State University (ASU), California State University at San Marcos (CSUSM), and University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). The ASU team evaluated Fifth Dimension sites that were operated as part of an after school program at four elementary schools in Boone, North Carolina. The CSUSM team evaluated a Fifth Dimension site operating at the Boys and Girls Club in Escondido, California. The UCSB team evaluated a Fifth Dimension site operating at the Boys and Girls Club in Goleta, California. Evaluators wanted to assess changes in children's literacy that can be attributed to participation in the Fifth Dimension, specifically: (1) does learning to use educational software on computers improve a child's mind? and (2) what kinds of cognitive changes, if any, occur over the course of a year in which computer-naïve children learn to use a series of educational programs in an informal and nonthreatening environment? The outcome measures tapped changes in student literacy, broadly defined, including changes in computer literacy, language comprehension, problem-solving strategies, and academic achievement. The primary research method was to assess relevant cognitive skills of students before they began the Fifth Dimension program and after they had extensive experience in the program (e.g., more than 10 or 20 visits over the course of the academic year), and to compare their pretest to posttest changes with those of similar students who did not participate. Separate evaluations were also conducted of the Expedition after school program, a Fifth Dimension program with an archaeological learning framework in Oakland, California. Expedition involves University of California at Berkeley (UCB) faculty, staff, and students directly with sixth graders through a service learning course, Anthropology 128, Archaeological Practice in a Sixth Grade After-School Program. These evaluations sought to measure the program's success in achieving a number of youth outcomes, as well as UCB undergraduate students' goals. |
| Evaluators | William E. Blanton, Gary B. Moorman, Bobbie A. Hayes, and Mark L. Warner, Appalachian State University Miriam W. Schustack, Rachelle Strauss, and Patricia E. Worden, California State University at San Marcos Richard E. Mayer, Richard Durán, Amy Lavezzo, Roxana Moreno, Jill Quilici, David Sanchez, Rebecca Simon, and Scott Woodbridge, University of California at Santa Barbara Tamara Lynn Sturak, UC Links Program, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley |
| Evaluations Profiled | Effects of Participation in the Fifth Dimension on Far Transfer (ASU) Learning About Technology in a Non-Instructional Environment (CSUSM) Cognitive Consequences of Participation in a Fifth Dimension After-School Computer Club (UCSB) What is Learned in an After-School Computer Club? (UCSB) Evaluation of Expedition – Computers and Archaeology After School (UCB) Expedition – Computers and Archaeology After School: Year-End Report, 2000–2001 (UCB) |
| Evaluations Planned | Evaluations are ongoing. |
| Report Availability | Note: This is just a sampling of reports available. Many of these reports, as well as others, are available at: www.education.miami.edu/ blantonw/5dclhse/publications/pub1.html. Summary Reports Mayer, R. E., Blanton, W. E., Durán, R., & Schustack, M. W. (1999). Using new information technologies in the creation of sustainable afterschool literacy activities: Evaluation of cognitive outcomes. Available at www.psych.ucsb.edu/~mayer/fifth_dim_website/ HTML/res_reports/research_reports.html. Mayer, R. E., Schustack, M., & Blanton, W. (1999). What do children learn from using computers in an informal collaborative setting? Educational Technology, 39(2), 27–31. Mayer, R. E. (1997). Out-of-school learning: The case of an after-school computer club. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 16, 333–336. Underwood, C., Welsh, M., Emmons, C., Lerner, D., & Sturak, T. (2002). University-Community Links to higher learning: Program impact report. Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley, Office of the President, Educational Outreach Department. Available at: www.uclinks.org. ASU Blanton, W. E., Moorman, G. B., Hayes, B. A., & Warner, M. L. (1997). Effects of participation in the Fifth Dimension on far transfer. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 16, 371–396. CSUSM Schustack, M. W., Strauss, R. & Worden, P. E. (1997). Learning about technology in a non-instructional environment. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 16, 337–352. UCSB Mayer, R. E., Quilici, J., Moreno, R., Durán, R., Woodbridge, S., Simon, R., et al. (1997). Cognitive consequences of participation in a Fifth Dimension after-school computer club. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 16, 353–369. Mayer, R. E., Quilici, J. H., & Moreno, R. (1999). What is learned in an after-school computer club? Journal of Educational Computing Research, 20, 223–235. UCB Sturak, T. L. (2000). Evaluation of Expedition – computers and archaeology after school. Berkeley: Interactive University Project, University of California at Berkeley. Available at www.mactia.berkeley.edu/aop/activity/expedition.pdf (Acrobat file). Sturak, T. L. (2001). Expedition – computers and archaeology after school: Year-end report, 2000–2001. Berkeley: Interactive University Project, University of California at Berkeley. |
Contacts
| Evaluation | UC Links Mara Welsh Mahmood UC Links Statewide Office 615C University Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1040 Tel: 510-643-7349 Email: mwelsh@uclink4.berkeley.edu ASU William E. Blanton, Ph.D., Professor of Teaching and Learning University of Miami, School of Education Merrick 324-A 5202 University Drive Coral Gables, FL 33146 Tel: 305-284-5053 Email: blantonw@miami.edu CSUSM Miriam W. Schustack, Ph.D., Professor Department of Psychology California State University 320 University Hall San Marcos, CA 92096-0001 Tel: 760-750-4095 Email: mschusta@csusm.edu UCSB Richard E. Mayer, Ph.D., Professor Department of Psychology University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Tel: 805-893-2472 Email: mayer@psych.ucsb.edu UCB Tamara Lynn Sturak, After School and Community Coordinator UC Links Program School of Education University of California at Berkeley 615 C. University Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1670 Tel: 510-643-7349 Email: tamara@uclink.berkeley.edu |
| Program | UC Links UC Links Statewide Office 615C University Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1040 Tel: 510-643-7349 Email: uclinks@socrates.berkeley.edu ASU Walter P. Oldendorf, Ph.D., Coordinator Reich College of Education Appalachian State University Edwin Duncan Hall: EDH 04 730 Rivers Street Boone, NC 28608 Tel: 828-262-7279 Email: oldendrfwp@appstate.edu CSUSM Miriam W. Schustack, Ph.D., Professor Department of Psychology California State University 320 University Hall San Marcos, CA 92096-0001 Tel: 760-750-4095 Email: mschusta@csusm.edu UCSB Lupe Arteaga, Club Coordinator Club Proteo 5701 Hollister Avenue Goleta, CA 93117 Tel: 805-967-1612 Email: marteaga@education.ucsb.edu UCB Tamara Lynn Sturak, After School and Community Coordinator UC Links Program School of Education University of California at Berkeley 615 C. University Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1670 Tel: 510-643-7349 Email: Tamara@uclink.berkeley.edu |
| Profile Updated | May 20, 2003 |
Evaluation 4 (UCSB): What Is Learned in an After-School Computer Club?
Evaluation Description
| Evaluation Purpose | To examine the cognitive consequences of participating in an after school computer club. The study tests the hypothesis that exposure to certain kinds of educational computing environments can transfer to improved cognitive processing in different situations. Specifically, researchers were interested in whether students who had participated in a computer club in which they learned to use a variety of educational programs were better able to learn a new piece of educational software that was presented as a paper-and-pencil mathematics test than were matched nonparticipants. The children's ability to transfer their learning to a new task, i.e., a Puzzle Tanks game, was examined by analyzing the frequency of errors and the quality of solution methods. |
| Evaluation Design | Quasi-Experimental: The participants were 50 children from an elementary school in southern California: 25 treatment group members and 25 comparison group members. At the beginning of the school year, several students from each participating class in the school were invited to join Club Proteo, a Fifth Dimension program run by the University of California at Santa Barbara faculty with the Goleta Boys and Girls Club. Students were selected based on teacher recommendations to represent the diversity of children at the school, with a special focus on language minority children. Ninety-two percent of the participants spoke Spanish as their first language and were designated as “limited English proficient” by their school. A total of 25 students (i.e., the treatment group) accepted the invitation and attended the computer club at least 10 times during the school year. The comparison students came from the same classrooms and had the same general characteristics as the treatment students, but had never attended the computer club. Each treatment student was matched with a comparison student who had the same English language proficiency classification, was in the same grade level, and was the same gender. In some cases, the matching was slightly imperfect, but these minor variations did not favor one group over the other. |
| Data Collection Methods | Tests/Assessments: Children were tested using a mathematical learning task. This task was a paper-and-pencil version of a mathematics computer game called Puzzle Tanks which none of the children had ever used. Children worked individually with the experimenter by reading instructions and attempting to solve a series of three puzzles (with immediate feedback after each “move” they made). Experimenters tallied the error rate on the three puzzles to provide an indication of the children's difficulty in learning to follow the directions of the Puzzle Tanks game and their ability to use feedback to help them learn to solve mathematical puzzles that they had never seen before. Experimenters also performed a more fine-grained analysis of the solution strategies that children used in learning to play the Puzzle Tanks game. On the last two learning problems students could use a more sophisticated solution method, which experimenters called a subtraction strategy, or a less sophisticated method, which they called an addition strategy. Based on students' patterns of moves, experimenters tallied the number of times students used either of these two strategies. |
| Data Collection Timeframe | Each student was tested during the last three weeks of the 1997–1998 school year. |
Findings:
Summative/Outcome Findings
| Academic | In learning to play the Puzzle Tanks game over the course of three learning problems, the treatment group failed to solve 24% (SD=28) of the problems within 18 trials whereas the comparison group failed on 43% (SD=35) of the problems. The moderate error rates indicate that the Puzzle Tanks task was an appropriate diagnostic instrument for the participant pool, with neither group displaying either a ceiling or floor effect. A paired t-test revealed that the difference in error rates is statistically significant t(24)=2.347, p<.03. The effect size is .53. In learning to play the Puzzle Tanks game over the course of the final two learning problems, children in the treatment group used the subtraction strategy (the more sophisticated strategy) on 42% (SD=42) of the problems whereas the comparison group used the subtraction strategy on 20% (SD=32) of the problems. A paired t-test revealed that this difference is marginally significant, t(24)=1.901, p<.07. The effect size is .68. In contrast, children in the treatment group used the addition strategy (the less sophisticated strategy) on 20% (SD=24) of the problems whereas the comparison group used it on 24% (SD=28) of the problems, reflecting a nonsignificant difference, t(24)<1, p>.20. |