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Jing Zhang

Professor: Jenel Lao

Education 160

03.22.2017

My Fieldwork at Blind Childrens Learning Center

The fieldwork at the blind childrens learning center not only gives me the important

experience to live with the special children but also makes me think about the theories which we

learn on the class more deeply. Whats more, the experience as a volunteer in the learning center

is worth sharing with everyone.

It is necessary for the different groups work in the blind childrens learning center

because it will make the children know more about the world which they cannot see and help

them understand the equality among the different peoples. For example, we have a research that

some blind children come from different nations in the learning center. A few of them are

Mexican-Americans and African-Americans. For the little children, they also have the desire to

integrate into the mainstream society. The volunteers of Mexican-Americans and African-

Americans can make the children who have the same identity with them have the warm and

familiar feeling in the afterschool programs. Whats more, the immigrants also should participate

into the afterschool programs of the blind childrens learning center. On one hand, there is no

doubt that everyone in this society has the responsibility to care about the blind children. On the

other hand, there are also the blind children in the learning center come from the other countries.

Their parents or families come to this country to seek for the better opportunities. They are more

sensitive than the local children because some of them feel self-abasement in some ways.
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Therefore, the immigrant volunteers are more important for this kind of children. The volunteers

can share the experience with the blind children and resonate with the special children.

Sandra D. Simpkins in her article explains the important theory that the socio-economic

and cultural factors will have an influence on the participation. For example, she thinks that

family socioeconomic situation has a close relationship with the young peoples participation

through financial resources and their parents work (Sandra 706). So it is necessary to improve

the Voluntary consciousness among the young people of different families. And the society

should reduce the influence on the participation which comes from the socio-economic and

cultural factors. Eccles introduces the expectancy-value theory in his special ways. He explains

that individuals expectations are informed by two important aspects. One is the perceptions

which have a relationship with the skills, competencies and characteristics. The other perceptions

refer to the individuals values and their goals. Whats the expectancy-value of the volunteers in

the activities? The answer is various. Some people think that they want to find their value during

the activities. Some young people think that they can improve their skills through different kinds

of the volunteer activities. Some people even make the volunteer activities as their goals. No

matter which attitudes the volunteers hold, they all have their expectancy-value on the

volunteer activities and do their best to achieve the goal and help more and more people. A

structured voluntary activity is kind of youth activities. Larson explains this theory that the

structured voluntary activity is organized by the adults and it contains extracurricular school

activities and some community youth activities (Larson 174).The structured voluntary activities

are different from the common voluntary activities because the young people can choose the

activities according to their hobbies. In addition, the structured voluntary activities have their

special constraints, rules, and goals for the young people, but the activities are popular among the
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young groups. When people talk about the amplifiers of engagement, it is easy to find that young

people's participation in organized activities, especially some youth programs, is associated with

the positive outcomes (Hansen 360). For example, many young people choose to attend into

some volunteer activities because it is the task of the college and when they finish it, they will

get the college achievement. In the blind childrens learning center, I also find many young

people to come there just for their universitys task. Therefore, the young people should have the

right value on the volunteer activities in some ways. Grogan in her article introduces the

elements of the engagement. For instance, she thinks that the elements of the engagement have a

close relationship with the academic skills and social competence (Grogan 2014). It is reasonable

that the young people who participate into the activities will use their different skills and improve

the skills at the same time. Whats more, the activities are the collective activity, so the social

competence plays an important role in the engagement.

My fieldwork at blind childrens learning center makes me know more about the special

groups and the volunteers work. The blind children are sensitive so they need more care and

help than the common children. So many young volunteers should pay attention to the

psychological characteristics of the children, like Grogans theory, use their social competence

properly. Whats more, it is difficult for the blind children to solve the problems in the daily life.

For example, they cannon wear their clothes as the common people. So when the teachers and

volunteers teach the children how to wear clothes by themselves, they should be in patience.

They can use the repeated practices to help the children grasp the living skill. Hansens theory

says that many young volunteers participate into activities because of the positive outcomes, I

think the cultivation of the love is also one important positive outcome for the young people. So
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it is necessary for more young people to participate into the similar activities because they will

get more important things which they cannot learn in the class.
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Works Cited

David M. Hansen. Amplifiers of Developmental and Negative Experiences in Organized

Activities: Dosage, Motivation, Lead roles, and Adult-youth Ratios. Journal of Applied

Developmental Psychology 28, 2007, 360374.

Jacquelynne Eccles. Who Am I and What Am I Going to Do With My Life? Personal and

Collective Identities as Motivators of Action. Educational Psychologist, 44(2), 7889,

2009.

Kathryn E. Grogan. Student Engagement in After-School Programs, Academic Skills, and Social

Competence among Elementary School Students. Child Development Research,

olume 2014 (2014), Article ID 498506, 9 pages.

Reed W. Larson. Toward a Psychology of Positive Youth Development. American Psychological

Association,2000. [Link]. 55, No. I, 170-183

Sandra D. Simpkins. Socioeconomic Status, Ethnicity, Culture, and Immigration: Examining the

Potential Mechanisms Underlying Mexican-Origin Adolescents Organized Activity

Participation. Developmental Psychology, 2013, Vol. 49, No. 4, 706721.