When I taught chemistry in the United States, making aspirin was one of my favorite lessons because many of my students didn’t realize that the modern day drug that we take in the form of Advil, or other painkillers, was used for centuries by the Native Americans and Egyptians. Aspirin comes from the willow bark tree, and these communities would use the leaves and bark of the tree in soups, or in ointments, as a painkiller and or to reduce fevers.

Science, medicine, or math are not modern day inventions. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, all humans are born with an innate understanding of math, and many communities have built on this innate understanding of math to develop civilizations. For instance, the Amazonian indigenous groups had knowledge of geometry without formal schooling, experience with graphic symbols or maps, or language of geometrical concepts.

Many of the research presentations at the Comparative and International Education Conference (CIES) in Montreal this year, have highlighted the importance of building on prior knowledge students bring with them to the classroom – such as, Jaddon Park, a graduate student from the University of Toronto, who presented research from Bangladesh; Ladi Semali, professor from Penn State, who held a panel on incorporating local knowledge in education; and our colleague Helen Abadzi, who held a workshop on cognitive neuroscience. When curriculum builds on prior knowledge, students better relate to the information taught in classrooms, and are more likely to continue onto secondary education.

Listening to this research, I began thinking of all the prior knowledge students in our 44 FTI countries bring with them to the classroom. For instance, in Kenya, many communities, including the children, have an innate understanding of agriculture – they understand rain patterns and when it is best to plant seeds. This knowledge can be linked to scientific concepts in chemistry, or the environment.

Leveraging the knowledge students already have, will allow them to further connect to subjects taught in school, and make progress. We work with 44 partner countriesin the Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI), this means there are at least 44 opportunities to build on prior knowledge students bring to the classroom.