Chapter 4: What Is
Universal Design for Learning?
Addressing the
divergent needs of special populations increases usability for everyone.
Universal Design for Learning extends universal design in
two key ways. First, it applies the idea of built-in flexibility to the
educational curriculum. Second, it pushes
universal design one step further by supporting not only improved access to
information within classrooms, but also improved access to learning.
Non-educators often make the mistake of equating access to
information with access to learning. In reality, these are two separate goals. In fact, increasing access to
information can actually undermine learning, because it sometimes
requires reducing or eliminating the challenge or resistance that is essential
to learning.
As educators, our aim is not simply to make information
accessible to students, but to make learning accessible. This requires
resistance and challenge.
Knowing the instructional goal is essential for determining
when to provide support and when to provide
resistance and challenge.
Principles of the UDL
Framework
Principle 1:
Principle 2:
Principle 3:
To support affective learning, provide multiple, flexible options for engagement.
The three UDL principles share one common recommendation: to
provide students with a wider variety of options.
The framework of UDL consists of instructional approaches
that provide students with choices and alternatives in the materials, content, tools, contexts,
and supports they use.
We know we should provide students with sensory alternatives to ensure that
those who have difficulty with one sensory modality (such as speech or
sight) will not be excluded from learning opportunities.
Similarly, bottom-up motor alternatives, such as
special keyboards or voice recognition software, can ensure that students with
physical disabilities will not be excluded from a particular learning task.
This kind of alternative crosses modalities, offering students a completely
different way to obtain or express ideas.
But realistically, even the most creative teacher can only
present one option at a time. And even if we did manage to use a variety of
approaches and media to present concepts, our
students would still need to practice those concepts and apply them on their
own.
The UDL framework can guide these three pedagogical steps,
helping teachers to set clear goals, individualize instruction, and assess progress.
By simply removing express reference to the medium and
stating the goal this way, we open the door for
more students' participation and success.
Create ramps, not
hurdles!
Rose, D.H. & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Association for Curriculum and Development http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/
I see what they did. Let's make "universal" become "multiple options". I can duct tape all my remote controls together into one giant "universal remote", but then users (students and teachers) are still trying to find the right button in this glob of stuff.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't ONE button that does it all work better? But really, that's the holy grail of education: a one-stop solution that fixes all the problems.
Guess I'm not buying the underlying principle that every person is exactly the same and a single methodology will produce the same results every time. Put that way, it makes us sound like lab rats
I think you're misunderstanding. The idea of universal is not to have one giant remote but to have all of the options that multiple remotes can provide. One person might need more volume while another needs caption or while another needs subtitles in Spanish and etc. Universal implies that it's more accommodating for ALL.
DeleteIt seems as if you're contradicting yourself. You say that the holy grail of education is a one-stop solution that fixes all problems but then you turn around and say you don't buy into the fact that a single methodology will produce the same results every time. So then a one-stop solution isn't the holy grail?
UDL agrees that every person is not exactly the same. Therefore we need to think of multiple modes for delivering instruction as well as multiple modes for students to learn and prove that they have learned.
It's the opposite of saying we are lab rats. It's saying that every individual is unique and needs a unique mixture of delivery and supports. One methodology won't work every single time which predicates UDL's emphasis on "multiple options".