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An Insight into the quality by Caren Liu. February 5, 2021
Promotions of summer programs are always eye-catching. Descriptions of those program benefits somehow form part of parents' expectations for their children. How can we choose a summer program that meets our children's developmental needs and fulfills personal achievement? The question points to a key element: the quality.
There are probably many quality assessment tools for school and child care centre's programs, but lacking the ones for the summer program, as its operators can be different organizations that vary the quality standard all the time. Understanding summer programing is an absolute part of identifying quality before looking into the connections with children's 21st-century skills. The six key components of a summer program are – operator, program focus, duration, ratio, funding source and connections. (McLaughlin and Pitcock, 2009) Two things need to be specified further. One is the operator, who organizes the summer program and can be a school, a child care centre or park and recreational centres. The other one is the connections. Whether the program is connected to a reliable large network can supervise and impact the program's quality. The first one is for parents to understand a program's background deeply, while the second provides additional support to enhance children's learning experience.
Unlike 20 century, today's learning and educating are shifting ways that focus on children's 21st-century skills, facing new self- management challenges (Jana, 2018). It includes creative communication, effective collaboration, critical thinking, developing creativity and utilizing connectivity. Research conducted by the University of Waterloo, called The Canadian Summer Camp Research Project, reported that 67% of campers reflected a positive growth in personal development and self- confidence, 65% in social connections and citizenship, and 52% in building environmental awareness. The growth in emotional intelligence makes up almost 70%, becoming the most potent summer camping strength. As far as these skills are concerned, parents may need to ask several questions to make their best choice when considering the summer program's quality.
1. Does the program help children establish environmental-friendly lifestyles?
2. Does the program promote children's physical and psychological well-being?
3. Whether the program encourage children's positive attitudes towards their emotional intelligence?
4. How will the program help children build social connections?
5. Do they pay attention to children's interests and needs and encourage creativity?
6. What about the staff-children ratio towards COVID-19, and are the cultural, gender and age diversity
included in the program?
"Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort."
John Ruskin
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enLIGHTening RCRC/Winter 2021
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