Advancing Research on Learning Variability. Research Agenda.

Variability is commonplace in children’s development and learning. Individual children vary over time and across domains of functioning (within-person variability); groups of children learning together have heterogeneous skills, behaviors, characteristics (within-group variability); and children are expected to operate successfully in a world of divergent and ever-changing contexts (contextual variability). Yet, educational systems rarely meet the demands of these different types of variability. Research, likewise, can do much more to fully embrace learning variability across the subfields of learning and development. If education systems are to address the various and morphing needs of children, the research community must build on existing traditions in population variability, child development, and learning research to vastly expand the knowledge base of how children change and differ in learning settings, and how children come to be prepared for the multitude of contexts they will encounter throughout life. This document was developed by the Jacobs Foundation with input and feedback from more than 50 experts on learning and development. This research agenda is intended to establish a scientific basis for designing education systems and programming that consider variability, and to support a multidisciplinary research community that seeks to improve children’s learning and development globally. The agenda will be used by the Jacobs Foundation as a guiding framework for its research work and to serve as a public resource to inspire conversation among researchers and research funders on supporting and embracing learning variability in child development and education.