Innovative Pedagogies to Transform Education

One factor for the global learning crisis—though certainly not the only factor—is that many countries have not invested sufficiently in teachers for their expanding school systems. Surprisingly, there have been dropping proportions of trained teachers in a number of world regions at both the primary and secondary levels, and this drop is especially pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa, where just 64 percent of primary school teachers and 50 percent of secondary school teachers have received appropriate training.

Addressing education’s challenges and shortcomings will require not tinkering around the margins but rapid, nonlinear progress, which is what the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution calls leapfrogging. Making a serious dent in improving inequality while educating all students for the 21st-century calls for widespread educational innovation. The research has also drawn extensively on existing literature, especially related to pedagogies, teaching, and learning.