La Clase Mágica

La Clase Mágica (LCM; The Magical Classroom) is an after-school educational activity that is also a research initiative, an educational innovation, and a social action project. Broadly, LCM is an ongoing study on learning and development of all its participants, of the effectiveness of the activities designed to achieve its stated goals, and of the system’s capacity to support social action. At several LCM sites in California, child participants and undergraduate students at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), engage in collaborative activities with community participants. There is close interaction among the after-school program, a UCSD course that feeds undergraduates into the activity, and the research team that develops and studies the community-oriented conditions for optimal learning. This collaboration differentiates LCM from other out-of-school recreational, ...