Involving students in policy debate is one of the most impactful academic interventions for secondary school students, according to a study, which between 2007 and 2017 followed about 3,500 students who were part of the Boston Debate League (BDL). The nonprofit supports debate teams in Boston Public Schools, which have a large concentration of…

Science Olympiad is a K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competition that engages approximately 7,000 teams across the U.S. in individual and team challenges at regional, state, and national levels. Science Olympiad began expanding to include elementary students in 2008. Yet, little is known about the adults who…

Disengagement from school represents the beginning stages of the general process which can end with dropout (Archambault et al., 2022; Henry et al., 2012). Disengagement, amplified by the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, continues to impact the education of students in the United States, which if not addressed, can begin a cycle which may…

In 2005, the Brazilian Public Schools Math Olympics (OBMEP) was created by the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada. Since then, around 18 million students from the sixth to the twelfth grades have taken part in the competition annually. In each year of the competition, 6500 medals are distributed to public school students. In the following…

South Korea implemented many-pronged educational reforms, notably to transition from heavy reliance on a high-stakes standardised test to more diversified assessment for university admissions. Nonetheless, this effort created another arena of competition towards meritocratic credentials--such as academic publications. The South Korean government,…

In this study, I explore a 20-plus-year process of how one research-intensive university in the United States integrated entrepreneurship into a university-wide initiative to develop an entrepreneurial culture. This research study focuses on the process of how entrepreneurial culture was developed through the implementation of three social…

Purpose: Case competitions are growing in popularity, in part because they are believed to build the skills and employment opportunities that higher education institutions are struggling to provide. We add to the nascent research on case competitions and answer calls for more exploration of career-related aspects of case competitions by exploring…

The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired the implementation of a number of online educational activities designed to promote appropriate measures, such as social distancing, in order to avoid spread of the disease. In these circumstances, ensuring that extracurricular activities in science education adapt to the changing situation is of crucial…

Over the last decade, the advancement of competitive collegiate esports has shown that there can be new and innovative ways for students to represent their schools competitively, earn scholarships, and make a living after college - all through "gaming." It is currently unknown whether college students and administration perceive…

The advent of online learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic radically altered the landscape of modern education. While most research has examined the socio-emotional and academic impact of the shift to online school, far less attention has been given to its effect on extra-curricular activities. This article examines the ways in which…

Informal STEM education experiences can be invaluable to students as a means of developing their future career goals and career interests. Extracurricular programs in the form of clubs, competitions, teams, and activities provide a platform for these informal education experiences. There are many STEM-focused extracurricular options for students,…

Economic development calls for the modernization of high-school education, which is hindered by the inertia of the current hierarchical system of schooling. An analysis of statistical data that describe the dynamics of structural changes in the economy and investment in public education showed a demand for the implementation of extracurricular…

Intense competition and educational privatization have fostered demands for student personalization, leading to shadow education becoming entrenched in the Asian education sector. Its social influence is expanding and far-reaching, which has attracted many scholars to study this issue. Scholars have been arguing about the adverse effects of shadow…

This paper describes a study of students' meaningful learning of the engineering design process during their participation in robotics activities. The population consisted of middle-school students (ages 13-15 years) who participated in the FIRST® LEGO® League competition. The methodology used was qualitative, including observations and…

Middle schools are increasingly diverse places where students see and interact with peers different from themselves. However, students with and without intellectual disability (ID) have few opportunities to interact--they are together infrequently within extracurricular settings and the classroom. As such, students with ID are on the margins of…