BrianaLouie

Education160
FieldworkExperience

At my fieldwork site, there are two days out of the week where children at the
summer camp get to participate in their club of choice. Based off of their childs
interests, parents are able to choose between the arts, culinaryarts,stem,and sports
clubs. The clubsareofferedin threeweek sessions,in order toenhance anddevelop
the skillsthatchildrenwilllearnduringtheseweeks. Formyparticularposition,Iwasin
chargeof the culinaryarts club. Here, Iwas able toteachgroupsofchildrenages5to
11 how to cook foods from various cuisines. Eachweek,childrenwould be organized
into smaller groups based off their age group and staff members would assign and
assistintaskssuchascuttingingredients,measuringspices,andmixing.
During my time in the field, Ifoundthat thechoicethatchildrenhave tochoose
their own club within the program was very beneficial. This makes the program
somewhatindividualized because attendeesget achoiceinwhattheylearnduringtheir
time attheprogram. ThisstrengthisrelatabletotwotheoriesIhavelearnedthroughout
this course, which are theexpectancyvalue theory(Eccles) and the powerof initiative
(Larson). Theexpectancyvalue theoryissimplyatheorythatexplainsselfperceptions
andworthiness of gettinginvolved inactivities. InEcclesarticle,sheexplainsthatthere
are two sets ofselfperceptions those related to theskills and knowledgeonehasand
those related to personalvaluesandgoals(Eccles,78). Additionally,therearealsotwo
major motivators associated with involvement which include expectation for success
and the value attained with the task at hand. The values may include the interest

enjoyment value, attainment value, utility value, or the relative cost. Each of these
values can personally be weighed by the individual andcanultimately motivateone to
participate in activities. Specifically, for the cooking activity, if one is expected to
succeed in cooking a recipe and they are interested, find that knowledge and/or skill
useful to them then they will be engaged in the learning process. Furthermore, the
power of initiative pertains to the capacity to be motivated from within and direction
towards a goal (Larson, 170). In other words, starting an activity and being able to
continue the activity until completed. In order for children to be able to do this, they
need both concentration and intrinsic motivation. By the power of initiative, this can
lead to positive developmental outcomes which may include but are not limited to
creativity andleadership. Specifically,atmy fieldwork site,Ibelievethatthechildrenin
the cooking club had both concentration and intrinsic motivation. First off, because
many children showed much interest and stayedfocusedduring the givenchallenging
tasks and secondly because they must of had some interest when signing up for the
culinaryartsclub.
In addition to the personal interests of the children enrolled inthe program, we
can also look at the contributions the programitselfmakesto interest children. In the
peer reviewed article,
Making Afterschool Programs Better,
Huang and Dietel discuss
five key components of effective afterschools goals, leadership, staff, program, and
evaluation. It states that programs that involved science andarts includedhigh order
thinking skillsin comparison to readingand math thathad a focus solely on instruction
(Huang and Dietel, 6). Similar to the activities provided at my fieldwork site, which

include science, arts, culinary arts, and sports these activities involved higher order
thinking skills. For the club I was leading, participants needed to be able to add
measurements, be able to read recipes, and recall previous skills learned in order to
accomplish a finished product. Oftentimes,staffmemberswouldplaygamesbasedoff
oftheactivities,suchasjeopardyaboutcookingtotestchildrenonthelearnedmaterial.
Likewise, high quality learning opportunities can lead to positive social and
behavioraloutcomes (Vandell, 5). This may include social skillsgainedbyinteractions
with other peers and decreased aggression and misconduct.

These types of

interactions are important due to the psychological foundations it helps lay for further
developmental outcomes. TheobservationsImadeatmyfieldworksiteincludedmany
group interactions that Ibelievecouldbebeneficial tothesummerprogram attendees.
For example, the groups staff members arranged for the cooking activities led the
children to interactwith each other and build relationshipswith peers around their own
age.
Lastly, high quality learning programs can lead to positive academic outcomes
thatcan be appliedto what istaught throughouttheschool year (Vandell, 5). Summer
programsthat providelearningopportunitiesandengagementinfunactivitiesmaysoon
develop academictraits such asintrinsic motivation andconcentration. Thesetypesof
programs that act as continual education when school is not in session showed an
increase in standardizedtest scores. Thus,I think it isvery beneficialfor children who
attend the fieldwork site that I worked at, because they provide fun and enriching
activitiesthatcanonlybenefitchildrenduringsocialinteractionsandtheacademicyear.


Eccles, J. (2009). Who am I and what am I going to do with my life? Personal and
collectiveidentitiesasmotivatorsofaction.
EducationalPsychologist
,
44
(2),7889.
Huang, D., & Dietel, R. (2011). Making afterschool programs better.
CRESST Policy
Brief).LosAngeles,CA:UniversityofCalifornia
.
Larson, R. W. (2000). Toward a psychology of positive youth development.
American
psychologist
,
55
(1),170.
Vandell,D.L.(2013).Afterschoolprogramqualityandstudentoutcomes:Reflectionson
positive key findingsonlearninganddevelopmentfromrecentresearch.
Expandingand
Opportunities
,10.