Parents, educators, government ministers and policymakers in all contexts and countries around the world are concerned with learning and how to improve it. There are many reasons for this, but none is more important than the fact that learning is at the heart of success at the individual, community and global levels. Learning First is the title of this report, with the strong implication that learning should be the foremost goal of education policies worldwide. The present review seeks not only to explain why this is the case but also focuses on what education stakeholders need to know--that is, what research is needed--in order to improve learning in the decades to come, particularly among those children most in need. This question is addressed in the following six sections: (1) Learning Goals and Research; (2) Learning Definitions and Contexts; (3) Global Change and the Contexts of Learning; (4) Five Domains of Research on Learning; (5) Learning: A Proposed Research Agenda; and (6) Conclusions: Learning to Make a Difference. Appended are: (1) Boundary Constraints: Methodological Considerations for Cross-Cultural Research on Learning; (2) Research Proposal Sketches Based on three learning stories; and (3) Abbreviations used. (Contains 16 figures, 3 tables, and 199 endnotes.)