Equity & UDL

Photo credit to http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/take_a_tour_udl

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning doesn't surprise when they tell the tale of four school districts that successfully implemented UDL strategies into their schools, but the cynic in me couldn't just take their word for it. I searched and searched for outside studies that support UDL's vision, but after a good hour of googling and searching my university's library's databases, the closest I could find to a scientifically based positive report was a just blog-post titled "The Implementation of Universal Design for Learning" published on October 30, 2016 at the website of Canadian Journal for Teacher Research. This is what they said:

Current research looking at UDL’s effects on academic achievement and engagement has shown that UDL may have promise as a teaching framework to affect student achievement.

Unfortunately, "may have promise" doesn't sound definitive enough to me! I guess now is a good time to confess my personal bias FOR Universal Design for Learning. As a 44-year-old college student with ADHD and quite possibly other undiagnosed learning disabilities, I am all in when it comes to teaching a classroom of students in a myriad of ways that will reach all of them in the way that they learn best. Even if the research (at least that I could find anyway) doesn't really scream for its implementation, I think that one teacher from the Canadian study said it best, “I don’t think this is new stuff…. It’s just good quality teaching.” UDL gets to the core of good teaching. Teachers who care about their students will be looking for and integrating classroom solutions that will fit the needs of all their students. Personally, I welcome any information whether it be UDL or others that will help me do my job. The only way we will really know if it works is if we implement it and see.

So, how can UDL be effectively integrated into teaching? I like the "key takeaways" from this article:

1. With UDL, information is often presented in more than one way, including text, audio and hands-on formats.
2. UDL encourages teachers to offer different test formats, including oral presentations and group projects, to get a more accurate picture of what students know.
3. UDL also looks for different ways to keep students motivated.

Implementation ideas are endless really, but I really related to the 5 Examples of Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom:

1. posted lesson goals
2. assignment options
3. flexible work spaces
4. regular feeback
5. digital and audio text

All of these five examples, I have personally benefitted from. I've been fantasizing (literally) about how I can best implement them ever since I started back to college three years ago. In fact, when I walked into my current EDSC3250 classroom, I almost orgasmed. No joke. It's my dream classroom.

Overall, I believe that UDL principles will help my students. Specifically, the five examples above will help them with mental organization and motivation, freedom of expression, physical comfort, not only a guidebook, but a guide giving regular hints to the finish line, and modifications to however they learn best with no stigma attached.

My goals with UDL are to learn as much as I can about UDL guidelines and implementation strategies and to work them into my lesson design. UDL is giving me even greater vision for empowered learning for my students. It has already taught me a lot about what I don't know, and I am sure it will continue to do so.