Educational reform should embrace learners' diversity, study finds

Educational reform should embrace learners' diversity, provide equitable access to foster attendance and promote student interest in learning through child-centered teaching, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Our study investigates how participatory methods allow a shift away from a right to education toward a right to quality and equity in learning for all children, including the most disadvantaged students," said Jean-Francois Trani, an associate professor at the Brown School and co-author of "Student engagement and attendance are central mechanisms interacting with inclusive and equitable quality education," published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Trani and his co-author, Robbie Hart, an associate scientist at the Missouri Botanical Garden, conducted 648 group workshops with school stakeholders in Afghanistan and Pakistan to envision model schools.

They found that child engagement in education, child attendance and child inclusion in equitable quality education all influence each other, and increases in any of these components were perceived to drive increases in the others.