Most people assume children receive the same level of education as other students. However, as H. Moriah Sokolowski and Daniel Ansari from the University of Western Ontario in Canada point out, the term ‘equity in education’ does not allow for the children who don’t have the same opportunities available or the capacity to achieve as well as their peers in school.

The article, Understanding the effects of education through the lens of biology reviews how the individual psychology, personality, genetic makeup and biology of children plus the impact of environmental effects, contributes to a child's ability to learn. The education interventions implemented by policy makers and educators have scope for biological research, which considers the potential for an individual to achieve and not just the educational outcomes of children across the total population. 

The full article is freely available via our companion Journal, the npj Science of Learning.