UDL (Universal Design for Learning)

One of the ways to make curriculum accessible to ALL learners, is to create universal design for learning classrooms. Excerpts from this conversation with Grace Meo explain it in more detail:

What kinds of teaching strategies are used in a UDL classroom?

The key to a UDL classroom is maximizing options for both students and teachers in order to enable students to learn in the most effective way. So teachers don’t limit their presentations to lectures and printed materials, since these will not engage all students or be accessible to all. They might use concept maps or graphics to enhance and illustrate concepts. Students might be encouraged to use alternate means for note-taking, such as audio recordings, depending on what works best for them. Students can also demonstrate what they know in multiple ways—for some, that means creating a diorama or writing a story. A UDL classroom might have cooperative groups where students take on different roles, share resources, and support each other’s learning. These are just a few examples.

It sounds like UDL is just good teaching. What’s the difference?

Good teachers do many of these things no matter what, so in that sense UDL in practice looks like good teaching at its best. But UDL provides a framework for being explicit about what good teaching is. It helps teachers recognize the diversity of their classrooms—because even those that might appear to be homogeneous are not. It helps them be explicit about the goals of the lessons and offer choices and alternatives for students to reach those goals.

Some children in my classroom use assistive technologies, like Braille. Is UDL intended to replace these kinds of assistive technologies?

Teachers tend to confuse the two. UDL is compatible with assistive technology, not in competition with it. There will always be a need for assistive technology. In fact, Universal Design for Learning grew out of CAST’s research and development of assistive technologies. We realized at one point that assistive technology placed an emphasis on fixing the student—retrofitting the child to accommodate inaccessible curriculum. With UDL we shifted our focus to fixing the curriculum.

We have a lot of students who are not identified as special needs—some who are high achievers and others who struggle to learn. What does UDL offer them?

One of the things UDL points out is that we all have special needs, talents, strengths. We all struggle to learn in some ways. There is enormous diversity among us in spite of the fact that some individuals have a label attached to them.

In our trainings, teachers do an exercise in which they brainstorm how they would learn to cook an Indian meal. Suddenly you have people demonstrating widely different styles, preferences, needs. Some say, “Don’t make me read the directions. I want to experiment.” Others want an exact recipe to follow. The “Aha!” moment comes as they realize that we all are different—our students, too. Some of us work best in digital environments and need the supports they have, whereas others do fine with “old-fashioned” texts.

Because of the nature of our educational system, UDL tends to be placed in the special education category. But in fact, UDL is really a merging of general education and special education, a sharing of responsibility, resources, and ownership. It gets away from the “their kids/our kids” divide between general ed and special ed.

You can read the entire article here.

 

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