Expanding Circles of Change: From Individual Healing to Community Transformation

Learner-Centered Education and Learning Differences

Learning differences are a natural part of human diversity. Learner-centered education—an approach that starts with each young person’s strengths, needs, and interests—creates environments where learners can thrive.

For young people with learning differences in particular, learner-centered education provides the guidance and conditions for their strengths to emerge and develop through responsive, community-connected learning.

To understand how this manifests in practice, we conducted a collaborative multi-case study, drawing on the collective expertise of learner-centered professionals serving as co-researchers in a community of inquiry. Together, we examined the approaches of three learner-centered environments: Avalon School, LaFayette Big Picture School, and Norris School District.

With funding provided in part by Oak Foundation, this series highlights evidence-based insights and strategies to show how learner-centered environments systematically support youth with learning differences and create expanding circles of positive transformation.

Research Background and Methodology

Research Overview: A Collaborative Multi-Case Study of Learner-Centered Education and Learning Differences describes our collaborative multi-case study, detailing the research methodology, the three participating sites, and the preliminary findings from the investigation. Read More

The Approach

The Approach: Reimagining Support for Learning Differences Through Learner-Centered Education examines how learner-centered environments reframe mindsets, redesign organizational architecture, and realize daily practices that better support young people with learning differences. Read More

The Impact

The Impact: The Ripple Effect of Reimagining Support for Learning Differences explores results of this shift, in which learners rebuild identity and agency, peers and educators shape cultures of mutual support, and families and community partners experience meaningful, reciprocal value. Read More

Evidence-Based Practices by Learning Difference

Addressing Specific Learning Differences Through Learner-Centered Education: Evidence from Practice and Literature examines how the participating sites address specific types of learning differences (e.g., ADHD, dyslexia, autism) and aligns findings with scholarly research on evidence-based approaches. Read More

Policies and Conditions

Navigating Policies and Conditions: Supporting Youth with Learning Differences in Learner-Centered Environments investigates how policies and conditions affect the studied environments, examining how these sites navigate constraints and leverage flexibility to serve youth with learning differences. Read More