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Using comparative data, this article examines the level and distribution of participation in adult education (AE) opportunities among countries that participated in PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies). It considers observed cross-country patterns in relation to some mechanisms that drive unequal chances to participate and to some policy issues that surround the...
This article presents an analysis of key developments in educational policies and strategies, since 2000, in relation to the education of children with disabilities in India and Pakistan. It responds to a set of specific questions focused on factors that have shaped the increased emphasis on education of children with disabilities, how national policies and programmes respond to their needs, and their...
Policymakers have increasingly advocated decentralization as a way of enhancing educational quality, although its potential in this area is still subject to debate. This article traces the impetus and popularity of the reform as a policy solution over the past few decades. It argues that three trends in particular have characterized the post-2000 era: a deepening of reforms implemented earlier, an...
This article examines how policies and strategies to address school-related gender-based violence have evolved since 2000, when gender-based violence within education was largely invisible. Through an exploration of policy enactment in three countries—Liberia, South Africa, and Brazil—it traces remarkable progress in policy, programmes, and research. The analysis asks why, despite such achievements,...
Linguistic diversity characterizes many countries with large literacy needs. Meeting these needs will require a multilingual approach based on learning initial literacy in the learner’s mother tongue, with other languages used subsequently. This article identifies five major challenges in implementing multilingual programmes and traces the international policy developments over the 15 years of the...
A girl's success in school—and after leaving school—is determined in part by the characteristics of and factors in her household and community. Many policies and programmes are based on an assumption that early marriage and adolescent pregnancy hamper continued progress toward gender equality in education. While education and age at marriage and pregnancy are positively correlated in many settings,...
Since the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All targets were proclaimed in 2000, countries have made considerable progress in enhancing the well-being of young children. But many young children—including 78% in the Arab states and over 80% in sub-Saharan Africa—still have no access to this education. Obstacles to increasing the demand for early childhood development (ECD) services include...
Evolving policies have increasingly aimed to include nomadic groups in EFA, but an overemphasis on mobility has distracted policy makers from going beyond access logistics to consider learning needs within nomads’ contemporary livelihoods and cultural values. Notable global trends are the growth and institutionalization of forms of Alternative Basic Education (provided by state and nonstate actors...
This introduction highlights the main focus of this special issue, Assuring Quality Education and Learning: Lessons from Education for All. The 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR)—Education for All 2000–2015: Achievements and Challenges—underlines the fact that inadequate attention to education of good quality and a failure to reach the marginalized have contributed to a learning...
This article is based on a background paper commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2015, Education for All 2000–2015: Achievements and Challenges. It presents an analysis of the global evolution of policy planning for early childhood care and education (ECCE) from before 2000 to 2014, data regarding the national and regional distribution of ECCE policies, strategic plans and laws, and major...
There is a gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This presents a worldwide problem of inequity. Sociocultural stereotypes associating STEM with males act as barriers that prevent girls from developing interests in STEM. This article aims to show that we can increase equity and enhance outcomes for a broader number of children around the world by integrating...
In unequal societies the effectiveness of formal education depends on the socioeconomic status (SES) of students. Studies have shown that poverty affects the development of the brain in ways that might compromise future learning, thus increasing the differences between groups with different SES. Interest is growing in the development of tools that might change this state of affairs. This article presents...
Interdisciplinary efforts to foster the development and education of children living in poverty require a comprehensive concept of multiple dimensions, within a systemic approach involving ecological and transactional perspectives. Constructing a common interdisciplinary language dealing with child development in ecological terms is a necessary first step toward building networks that can guide us...
Education is a socially structured form of learning. It involves the brains of different players – students, teachers, family members, and others – in permanent interaction. The biological set of mechanisms by which these brains receive, encode, store, and retrieve mutually exchanged information is called “neuroplasticity”. This is the ability that enables developing and adult brains to react and...
This Introduction highlights the key point of this special issue on brain research, psychology, and learning. The issue discusses concrete ways in which neuroscience and experimental psychology, among other disciplines, can contribute to reducing educational inequities worldwide. The Introduction discusses common themes among the articles in this issue and outlines myriad benefits, as well as some...
Physiology and assessment constitute major bottlenecks of school learning among students with low socioeconomic status. The limited resources and household overcrowding typical of poverty produce deficits in nutrition, sleep, and exercise that strongly hinder physiology and hence learning. Likewise, overcrowded classrooms hamper the assessment of individual learning with enough temporal resolution...
Infants rapidly learn language in their home environments. Between 6 and 12 months of age, infants’ ability to process the building blocks of speech (i.e., phonetic information) develops quickly, and this ability predicts later language development. Typically, developing infants in a monolingual language environment rapidly tune in to the phonetic information of their native language, while their...
How to measure quality of early childhood education and care is an evergreen topic of research and discussion in various disciplines. Here, we propose a contribution from developmental neuroscience and neuroendocrinology. In this secondary data analysis study, we tested the hypothesis that salivary cortisol can serve as a reliable objective indicator of early childhood education quality. As measured...
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