Educational Planning Division

From birth to age eight, children take the first steps in a lifelong learning journey. Young children are actively observing their world and learning from it from the moment of birth. The quality of a child's early experiences makes a critical difference as their brains develop, providing either strong or weak foundations for learning, health and behaviour throughout life.

In their first three years, children develop physically, cognitively and emotionally at a faster rate than at any other time in their lives. Children's brains are built moment by moment as they interact with their environments; in the first few years of life more than one million neural connections are formed each second, a pace never repeated again.

Young children thrive when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning. General cognitive processes and the emotional and social development of children are critical for their success in school and in later life. Research has also shown that much more is going on cognitively, socially and emotionally in young children, including infants, than scientists or care and education professionals previously knew.

The association focuses on meeting the needs of children from disadvantaged communities and dual language learners, engaging and supporting families, and building the capacity of educators and communities to sustain improvements. It supports good early childhood development with research to improve future opportunities, school attainment and earning potential, and it supports, designs, studies and scales up programmes that enhance school readiness and success.

The association supports educators and policymakers with research on psychological and physiological development, on how children at different stages of development interact in school, and on the effectiveness of policies and programmes designed to support child development, covering children's cognitive, emotional, social, physical and behavioural growth.

Curriculum and instruction is a rapidly growing field that strives to transform the educational landscape through improved curriculum design and teaching best practices. School curriculum and instructional programmes determine the content of what students learn and the methods their educators use to teach, ranging from general educational requirements to specific programmes for special education, English learners and other groups of students.

The association's researchers examine the effectiveness of instructional techniques in promoting student learning, how curriculum requirements affect students and teachers, and the policy implications of those outcomes. The association provides equitable learning opportunities as a cornerstone of modern society, and is principally interested in research guided by quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods investigative traditions.

In recent years the nature of the relationship between education, conflict and peacebuilding has risen up the international development agenda. Children's right to quality education is under threat due to violent conflicts, mass displacement, natural disasters and growing social and economic inequalities globally.

Education policies and programming designed to address concerns about access to educational resources, distribution and pedagogical approaches often fail to address the complex political, security and economic challenges faced by learners in emergency situations.

However, education builds capacity and social relationships by influencing individual and collective understandings, competencies, values, norms, opportunities, agency and status equity. International education as a field has always carried a concern for peace, including international understanding and the amelioration of harms such as injustice and poverty.

Education plays a crucial role in promoting gender equality, which increasingly features as a key concern in international declarations and national policy commitments.

Equal educational opportunities for all have been the major concern of well-meaning individuals in Ghana and across the world. Education is crucial for promoting gender equality by providing individuals with the knowledge, skills and values to challenge gender stereotypes and promote equal rights. This includes equal access to education, healthcare and economic opportunities, as well as the ability to live free from gender-based violence and discrimination. As a result, educators, administrators and policy makers are poised to disseminate gender equity through policy provision and advocacy that encourage functional education at different levels.

Inequalities are expressed through the selection of educational content, the application of methodological strategies, the selection of teaching resources, interpersonal relationships, specific task assignments, and even seating choices within the classroom. These ongoing gender-related issues drive the need for teachers to receive specific and transversal training in this area, aimed at revealing gender relations as a type of power relationship, for the promotion of social change.

The association's researchers examine the role of education in promoting gender equity and empowerment using critical indicators such as enrolment and graduation rates at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. The association investigates the complications around translating gender equality policy between global, national and local contexts, and takes a special interest in the development of indicators around gender equality in education, aware both of their strengths and weaknesses.

A concern with educational equity has dominated educational debate since the 1960s, but the focus has shifted from assuring equal access for ethnic or racial minorities to the question of who ultimately controls what values the school will transmit. Educational equity, operationalized as fair and just treatment of every student, is a core value, a policy priority, a key standard for pedagogical practices, and a prized outcome in new school designs worldwide. While equity-focused policy and practice have been mainstays in Ghana and across some nations of the world, the current impetus can also be attributed to massive migration patterns and nation-specific immigration policies.

Educational equity is fair and just access to the support and resources necessary to achieve a student's full academic and social potential. The achievement gap between racial minorities and the majority, and between the rich and the poor, is one of the prominent issues of modern education.

The association's researchers study the performance gap due to race, gender, family income, disabilities, resource allocation and other factors, as well as the effectiveness of strategies that try to close those gaps. They examine the benefits of and access to early childhood education, education inequities, teaching students with disabilities, anti-bias education in schools, and the education challenges that immigrants and refugees face.

The association's researchers discuss the importance of equity and quality education in schools, and how employing equity and quality strategies in classroom instructional practices and school culture can positively change children's lives. The research determines the evolution and development of the term equity in education by the scientific community, and identifies the scientific production and performance of the term in the field of education.

The Educational Planning Division is dedicated to conducting high-quality research with a primary focus on education and training, generating knowledge from qualitative and quantitative analyses rooted in data and evidence. Using the knowledge it generates, the division actively facilitates policy discussions between national and international researchers, policymakers and practitioners, through a series of workshops and policy dialogues held at national and regional levels.

In pursuit of its objectives the division maintains close collaborations with government agencies, educational and training institutions, civil society organizations and other pertinent stakeholders, a collective effort to foster innovation and implement effective solutions in education and training.

The division's core activities revolve around research, capacity development and policy engagement. Its current key areas of research focus are educational technology, skills development, the advancement of quality education, and the promotion of inclusive education, spanning from primary through to higher education.

English language learners are a diverse population of students who present unique challenges to educators. English language learning requires many underlying skills and techniques: learners have to master a number of complex linguistic, personal, cultural and social skills and competences, and be aware of effective techniques and strategies to help them cope with various challenges during the learning process.

Teaching English language learners has become such a highly specialized field that there are professionals who devote their whole careers to researching and perfecting strategies for English language instruction. English language learners also face a formidable task when they attend mainstream classrooms where English is the medium of instruction. The frequent use of learning strategies can help learners become more competent and effective language users in the classroom, and inspire them to achieve higher levels of mastery in the target language.

It takes multiple years for English learners to gain a high enough level of language proficiency to perform on a par with their native English-speaking peers. English learners cannot wait until they are fluent in English to learn grade-level content; they must continue to develop their mathematics and reading skills as well as their knowledge of social studies and science even while learning English, which can happen through a variety of programme models.

The association's research investigates students' English academic achievement, their beliefs about English language learning, their English language learning strategies, and the relationships between them, applying descriptive and correlational design and quantitative methods. The research also covers what effects different instructional methods have on English language learners, how cultural differences and attitudes affect them, the effectiveness of English language learner programmes, and other questions of importance to educators and policymakers.

The online environment offers unprecedented opportunities for people who would otherwise have limited access to education, as well as a new paradigm for educators in which dynamic courses of the highest quality can be developed. Traditional education has changed radically within the last couple of years; you now have access to a quality education whenever and wherever you want, as long as you can get online.

The increasing availability and maturity of the internet has led to the rise of online educational tools, courses and institutions. Online education is a sensible choice whether you are a teenager or an adult: as a student it can be a useful learning method for sharpening your skills in a difficult subject, or learning a new skill.

The association's researchers study the differences between traditional and online education, as well as the ways that students and educators use the new opportunities opened up in online environments, and analyze the effect of online education on student achievement.

Education, more than almost any other public investment, is understood to have the potential to reduce poverty, promote growth and prosperity, and reduce inequalities. However, research has shown that inequality still features prominently in the educational system. Intersecting inequalities are pervasive across all phases of education and the transitions between them, from the early years through primary, secondary and tertiary, and they are linked to poverty and a range of other markers of disadvantage and discrimination.

Reducing educational inequality is a priority for educators, administrators and policymakers. The association works with policy makers and educators to provide empirical research exploring a variety of issues relating to poverty and inequality in education, including the effects that income disparity, race, gender and family background can have on educational outcomes, as well as the causes, patterns and effects of poverty and inequality.

The division draws on a wide range of methods, working across disciplines to examine the evidence, policy and practice dimensions of these issues.

Research has consistently shown that effective classroom teachers are the critical factor contributing to student learning, and that teachers and school leaders are the key school factors influencing student learning opportunities and outcomes. Teaching leadership is a key factor for students' learning and flourishing, and it occurs in an asymmetrical and interpersonal relationship.

A teacher's self-efficacy as an instructional leader is strongly and positively associated with soliciting parent involvement, communicating positive expectations for student learning, improving instructional practice, and being able to innovate successfully in the classroom.

Teachers and students depend on effective school leadership to create an environment that supports learning. Many debates have centred on pre-service preparation for effective teachers and leaders, in-service training and support, peer learning and influence among teachers, educator evaluation, educator labour markets, and how to improve teacher and leader quality. The association studies the qualities and combinations of training, knowledge and experience that make teachers and leaders effective.

The research characterizes the teaching leadership of high school teachers through the influence they exert on their students, and highlights the importance of teacher leadership for student character education. It investigates the relationship between certain types of school structure and the effectiveness of teacher leaders, focusing on teachers who lead from within their classrooms rather than those who have left the classroom for different responsibilities.

The research measures effectiveness, the impact of programmes intended to promote teacher and leader effectiveness, and the impact that effective teachers and leaders have on student outcomes. The work attends to both the micro-level school environment and the macro-level policies that influence the development of teaching and leadership effectiveness.

The fast development of technology has changed the face of the academic sector. Classroom mechanization has improved student engagement and learning, and school automation has advanced in ways that potentially benefit education. Technological progress is currently considered a learning resource within the educational field: the use of new technologies facilitates and strengthens teaching and learning processes, offering virtual tools that allow knowledge to be strengthened, ideas to be shared and critical thinking to be formed.

Technological innovation and its implementation in education improve the quality of teaching and self-learning, since it provides various mechanisms of use such as virtual platforms and web pages with high academic impact. The use of new technologies in educational systems helps individuals develop further on the basis of scientific knowledge, training people with better skills and development capabilities through the use of virtual tools.

Technologies such as virtual reality in education, artificial intelligence and machine learning, biometrics in schools, cloud computing for education, social media in educational institutions and 3D printing are causing massive changes in all sectors of the economy. These innovations are giving classrooms a new look and have changed the ways in which lessons are conducted.

Innovations could change the direction society takes. They are shaped by stored knowledge provided by education or experience, and societal development is made possible through innovations in education that originate from creative intellectuals in the academy, not only faculty members but also the many students who can cultivate their talents with the aid of education. Online courses, teaching aids, educational software, social networking tools and other emerging technologies are disrupting the traditional classroom environment.

The association's work identifies the important aspects of the use of new technologies in education and the effect they have on students, and gives education leaders insights on how technological innovations are being used and how effective they are at helping to improve student outcomes.

Education plays a crucial role in addressing climate change and promoting sustainable development. It is through education that individuals gain the knowledge and understanding of climate change and its impacts, as well as the skills and tools needed to mitigate and adapt to those changes.

Climate change and associated environmental factors pose a fundamental threat to human existence and well-being. Climate change education is more important now than ever: understanding the causes and effects of climate change is the first step in shifting mindsets, establishing new ways of limiting its impact, and adapting to its unavoidable effects.

Education, both formal and non-formal, has a crucial role to play in raising awareness, building skills and fostering commitment to environmental justice. It can encourage people to change their attitudes and behaviour, and helps them make informed decisions. It can raise awareness about the importance of sustainable practices and encourage individuals to act to reduce their carbon footprint and preserve ecosystems. Yet many practices of schools and universities are reinforcing the root problems of excessive consumption and waste, and a fundamental transformation of teaching, learning and knowledge production is needed.

The sustainable development goals represent an effort to guide society towards being more accessible and just, conveying a strong dimension of social development and human dignity and demanding justice at all stages. By integrating sustainability education into curricula, educational institutions can equip students with the knowledge, values and attitudes to become responsible actors in addressing climate change.

The association's research identifies the extent to which matters related to climate change are addressed within the teaching and research practices at tertiary institutions, with a focus on the training needs of teaching staff. The work brings together empirical and theoretical work interrogating notions of sustainable development and their links with education, creates conditions for more and improved climate change education in schools, and increases climate literacy among old and young people.