lini Odzlan teaches an extremely diverse group of students in southern Malaysia, where differentiated teaching strategies are essential to ensure all students can thrive. In a very challenging environment, she was able to more than double students' mastery of the history curriculum and significantly increased their engagement levels, developing their socio–emotional and academic skills.
She was able to do this because she had access to insights and strategies that, historically, have not been deeply embedded in Malaysia’s teacher development system. Elini says she transformed her teaching methods through strategies learned during a global inclusive education fellowship. By pairing students as learning partners who support each other's academic growth, embedding collaborative projects, creating differentiated lesson plans tailored to various learning abilities, and conducting frequent formative assessments, she unlocked remarkable results that helped put her students on different trajectories. Now, Elini’s experience serves as a model for other teachers and teacher educators.
Over the last ten years, Teach For All’s engagement with teachers and educators across the world has revealed consistent patterns in classrooms where students develop holistically—in their agency, awareness of the world, connectedness to people and planet, wellbeing, and academic mastery. We've also observed these patterns at work in communities where collective leadership is developing to support aggregate gains in students’ development. Despite immense contextual and cultural differences, teachers and educators who successfully equip their students to shape a better future share striking similarities in their approaches.
This insight suggests we can dramatically accelerate progress in education around the world by supporting educators to learn from each other even across diverse communities and countries. We’ve seen how learning together is a powerful mechanism that enables educators to make important shifts in their orientation, mindsets, and approaches to teaching and learning.
Yet one irony we’ve seen during more than 15 years building a global education network is that global education lacks sophisticated learning systems. Unlike fields such as health or climate change, education lacks the global infrastructure that enables knowledge sharing and learning across borders. Traditional forms of research that seek to investigate, test, and replicate a single policy solution will not alone enable the learning we need to improve systems of education. We need more opportunities for teachers, school leaders, and system leaders to learn from research and practitioners’ innovations.
Teachers like Elini show us that it’s possible for educators to shape a better future for their students and for all of us. However, the gap between such examples of excellence and the broader trajectory of educational outcomes reveals challenges in spreading and learning from such approaches. The recent PISA results point to a ten–year aggregate decline in educational outcomes across 81 developed countries, while the RISE study showed that educational outcomes have declined in most low– and low–middle–income countries over the last 30 years. Even more concerning, these declining results only reflect academic mastery, not the broader capabilities, like agency, global awareness, and connectedness, that students need to address today's complex challenges.
Progress begins with reimagining education's priority in society. By recognizing that today's classrooms shape tomorrow's reality, we can build momentum for the knowledge–sharing systems that education needs to equip the next generation with the mindsets and skills to build a better future.
We already know what works. Islands of excellence exist in education systems globally, with transformational classrooms and schools in virtually every country offering models for progress. We can catalyse the transformation of our systems by connecting and supporting educators all over the world to learn from these examples.
As we mark this International Day of Education, let us recognize that transforming education requires new systems to help the world’s educators learn from each other. This demands new institutions that can bridge research and practice, connect educators across borders, and accelerate the spread of effective approaches. By transforming how education systems learn and improve, we can close the gap between isolated examples of excellence and the systemic change our world urgently needs, enabling educators everywhere to develop students equipped to shape a better future for themselves and all of us.
a global affairs media network
Enable the world’s educators learn together to unlock progress

Photo by Adrià Masi via Pexels.
January 24, 2025
Global education can transform by connecting teachers worldwide to share insights, improve systems, and shape a better future, write Wendy Kopp and Cheryl Ann Fernando.
E
lini Odzlan teaches an extremely diverse group of students in southern Malaysia, where differentiated teaching strategies are essential to ensure all students can thrive. In a very challenging environment, she was able to more than double students' mastery of the history curriculum and significantly increased their engagement levels, developing their socio–emotional and academic skills.
She was able to do this because she had access to insights and strategies that, historically, have not been deeply embedded in Malaysia’s teacher development system. Elini says she transformed her teaching methods through strategies learned during a global inclusive education fellowship. By pairing students as learning partners who support each other's academic growth, embedding collaborative projects, creating differentiated lesson plans tailored to various learning abilities, and conducting frequent formative assessments, she unlocked remarkable results that helped put her students on different trajectories. Now, Elini’s experience serves as a model for other teachers and teacher educators.
Over the last ten years, Teach For All’s engagement with teachers and educators across the world has revealed consistent patterns in classrooms where students develop holistically—in their agency, awareness of the world, connectedness to people and planet, wellbeing, and academic mastery. We've also observed these patterns at work in communities where collective leadership is developing to support aggregate gains in students’ development. Despite immense contextual and cultural differences, teachers and educators who successfully equip their students to shape a better future share striking similarities in their approaches.
This insight suggests we can dramatically accelerate progress in education around the world by supporting educators to learn from each other even across diverse communities and countries. We’ve seen how learning together is a powerful mechanism that enables educators to make important shifts in their orientation, mindsets, and approaches to teaching and learning.
Yet one irony we’ve seen during more than 15 years building a global education network is that global education lacks sophisticated learning systems. Unlike fields such as health or climate change, education lacks the global infrastructure that enables knowledge sharing and learning across borders. Traditional forms of research that seek to investigate, test, and replicate a single policy solution will not alone enable the learning we need to improve systems of education. We need more opportunities for teachers, school leaders, and system leaders to learn from research and practitioners’ innovations.
Teachers like Elini show us that it’s possible for educators to shape a better future for their students and for all of us. However, the gap between such examples of excellence and the broader trajectory of educational outcomes reveals challenges in spreading and learning from such approaches. The recent PISA results point to a ten–year aggregate decline in educational outcomes across 81 developed countries, while the RISE study showed that educational outcomes have declined in most low– and low–middle–income countries over the last 30 years. Even more concerning, these declining results only reflect academic mastery, not the broader capabilities, like agency, global awareness, and connectedness, that students need to address today's complex challenges.
Progress begins with reimagining education's priority in society. By recognizing that today's classrooms shape tomorrow's reality, we can build momentum for the knowledge–sharing systems that education needs to equip the next generation with the mindsets and skills to build a better future.
We already know what works. Islands of excellence exist in education systems globally, with transformational classrooms and schools in virtually every country offering models for progress. We can catalyse the transformation of our systems by connecting and supporting educators all over the world to learn from these examples.
As we mark this International Day of Education, let us recognize that transforming education requires new systems to help the world’s educators learn from each other. This demands new institutions that can bridge research and practice, connect educators across borders, and accelerate the spread of effective approaches. By transforming how education systems learn and improve, we can close the gap between isolated examples of excellence and the systemic change our world urgently needs, enabling educators everywhere to develop students equipped to shape a better future for themselves and all of us.