In Sweden as well as in Germany an extensive system of state run programs for extended education is established. Although the goal and organization of the programs somewhat vary there are also common institutional features as well as a number of parallel education-related problems regardless of whether they are extracurricular activities at German all-day schools or goal-oriented educare in Swedish school-age educare centers.

Our presentation will begin with a short history of the development of the (state run) extended education sector in Sweden and in Germany and a short discussion of the various aspects the programs are aiming at. We will look upon different positions and problematize societal expectations.

In the second section we will focus on some of these differences in detail. We base our comparison on a matrix encompassing various dimensions. For example one dimension focuses on the question where the activities are located. In both countries the activities are located in schools, that means (mostly) within the school(building) and under the authority of the principal. A second dimension of comparison refers to the professionalism of the staff providing the various activities.

In the third section of our presentation we will give a short overview of research projects and findings on German all-day schools and Swedish school-age educare centres. In the last section of our presentation we will give some hints for further research on extended education focusing international comparison.

In learning societies today there has been an increase in out-of-school time and extracurricular learning in childhood and in adolescence compared to the past. The last 10 to 20 years have seen numerous efforts to expand institutional education and care opportunities to supplement schooling in almost every modern country. This also applies to Taiwan in Asia and Switzerland in Europe.  Extended education is often seen as a possible response to growing challenges and demands, and expectations concerning extended education are manifold: Extended education is viewed as a valuable contribution to the sociocultural infrastructure that makes it easier for parents to be employed and for children to participate in society and education.

Extended education programs have many common institutional features as well as a number of parallel education-related pedagogical problems. But there are also differences between the developments in individual countries. In our speech we will elaborate on the developments of past years in both countries – Taiwan and Switzerland –, as well as the similarities and differences between those countries concerning extended education.

In our lecture we will focus on (a) tradition and developments in extended education, the School scheduling, (b) the staring position and expectations, (c) the structure of the offerings, and (d) give a research overview and discuss similarities and differences. We will conclude with an outlook on what can we learn from each other and with an outlook on possible future research.

Korea and Japan are the countries where extended education programs and offerings are greatly flourishing across the nation. Unlike most countries in Europe and North American regions, these two countries have traditionally shown the government’s strong intervention and supports to the extended education area. It is also obvious that cooperation and collaboration between public schools and the local community are recently emphasized and supported by both the government and the public. Given such similarities, many aspects of extended education, in terms of policy and practices, have also differences between the two countries, which in turn leads to lessons that may be considered for future development of extended education.

For a better understanding of extended education systems and practices of Korea and Japan, two speakers from the two countries will present information and data about a) historical development and societal backgrounds of extended education, b) the goals of extended education and relationships with regular curricular activities - possibly with for-profit private tutoring in the education market, c) together with policy environments, current situations in relation to participation rates, types of popular programs offered, major providers, related supporting systems and regulations, etc., d) the brief summary of research findings in the area of extended education, e) current issues and future directions for development of extended education for both countries. To summarize, keynote speakers will suggest lessons for the development of policies and practices that may be drawn from the cases of the partner country. Suggestions for future research will also be presented.

Over the last 20 years, there has been a growing international awareness of the importance of out-of-school time in the lives of children and adolescents.  In this presentation, I propose a conceptual framework that may be useful in generating discussion, formulating research questions, and encouraging international collaborations with the ultimate goal of advancing research and practice in extended education. Similarities and differences between U.S. perspectives and studies of extended education in Europe and Asia are explored. Some next steps for research and practice will be proposed. 

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is widely known for its assessment of student competencies, providing country rankings in student achievement as well as comparative indicators for equity in education. Recent waves of PISA, in addition, attempted at assessing the contexts of learning, steadily increasing both the number and the depth of facets covered. The most recent wave, PISA 2015 allows for studying a broad spectrum of individual, school-related, family-related and social factors through questionnaires administered to students and school principals (Kuger, Klieme, Jude & Kaplan, 2016). The author of this keynote, being in charge of the development of frameworks and questionnaires in PISA 2015, will provide an overview of instruments and findings related to extended education.

The following enhancements to PISA turn the 2015 survey into a valuable source of information on extended education:

• The amount of time invested into learning in mandatory lessons on one hand, extra-curricular activities on the other hand can be estimated for all students in more than 70 countries.
• Students in about 60 countries have been asked about activities they do before and after school.
• For two areas of additional instruction, namely science and mathematics related instruction, students have been asked whether, why, where and by whom they receive such instruction and how they perceive its quality as compared to mandatory school lessons. If they did not choose to engage in such additional instruction, they were asked to identify the reasons. This kind of information is available for 23 countries, including 17 European and 4 Asian countries.
• In addition to students’ achievement and motivation in science, mathematics, and reading, PISA 2015 looks at outcomes that are more relevant from a holistic perspective on education, namely well-being in school and general life satisfaction.

The keynote will report on the questionnaire instruments and their measurement quality, and present key findings from comparative analyses. For example, the average amount of non-mandatory (extra-curricular) learning per week varies from 2 hours to 10 hours per country, European students investing considerable less time than others.  Whether students do work for pay before or after school is a very strong indicator of socio-economic background, which explains much of the disparities between and within countries. Thus, extending the perspective of comparative educational research beyond regular, mandatory classroom activities helps understand cultural contexts and equity issues in education.