Educational Outcomes of After-School Programs in Korea: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate educational outcomes of after-school programs in Korea through a meta-analysis. Twenty-three eligible primary studies were obtained through a systematic literature review. An overall effect size was computed while moderator analyses were also conducted. Meta-analyses indicated the overall effect size for all studies was 0.662. Moderator analysis showed statistically significant differences by moderating variables. This included the effect size of cognitive domain as the largest, followed by affective domain and psychomotor domain. Regarding school levels, elementary school results were higher than those of middle school and high school. For the type of research design, the effect sizes were ranked as one group, non-equivalent control group, and post-test only control group. In conclusion, findings in this research could provide resources for developing effective and efficient after-school programs with educators and school administrators since it is important to invest in the analysis and implementation of elements of after-school programs grounded in empirical evidence. Future research is needed to evaluate which characteristics in after-school programs and academic components are related toward better results.