This week, we hosted a Universal Design for Learning workshop led by Kim Bane and Jason Hicks from Pathways to Inclusive Education. We are excited to share some insights from this amazing two-day workshop, providing enough time to learn new strategies that will positively impact our lessons and ensure that we empower the learners.

On day one, we explored the ‘WHY’ and the reasons we use or need UDL – Universal Design for Learning. The first main idea that emerged from our discussions is that we need UDL to create a variety of strategies that will help us accommodate learners and consider how those strategies will impact others. To elaborate on this point, we invite you to think about practices you implemented in the classroom, intending to benefit specific students but ended up benefiting others. As a more explicit example, consider the reason ramps were created (ramps provide an alternative to stairs for wheelchair users, people with mobility issues, and people with prams, bicycles, and other wheeled items). Now, are they the only people who benefit from ramps? In education, we can develop strategies for specific students that will also benefit others.

In this line of thinking, we need to learn to teach challenging students by changing our focus, not only planning our sessions with great students in mind. This approach will enable us to impact a significant number of students in our lessons. To better understand this change in focus, we invite you to watch Shelley Moore’s presentation on transforming inclusive education:

We need to ensure that we can deliver content in different ways to meet students’ needs. Consider this statement in the context of an ice cream truck that enters a neighborhood. All kids run with excitement to the truck, and when they arrive, they are told that there is only one type of ice cream – vanilla. What do you think will happen to those who did not want vanilla? Similar to an ice cream truck that typically offers multiple types to satisfy different customers, we as educators need to have different strategies to deliver our lessons. We need to shift from addressing disabilities to addressing variability.

Students Experiencing Emotions

One of the most challenging aspects is understanding and taking the right actions when it comes to students’ emotions. In some situations, as teachers, we tend to take them personally, and they affect our actions. It becomes difficult to help students when you don’t understand what they are going through or when you are hurt by their behavior.

It’s important to learn how to deal with those emotions, and one simple question like, ‘How are you feeling today?’ can help get students to express their feelings using specific names like ANGER, SADNESS, FEAR, and HAPPINESS. The fact that you care and recognize their feelings has a huge impact on learners; they will see that you are there to support them.

Reframe the problem

This was the highlight of this professional development session, the main takeaway for me. I used to think that the barrier to learning was on students. If students didn’t complete assignments, I would only blame them for not being able to complete or submit them on time. Now I know that the barrier is not on students; it’s on DESIGN. How did you design that lesson, assessment, or unit? Is there a different way you can design it? This made me reflect on my practices, and I look forward to researching and applying new strategies that will benefit the learners.

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities. For more details access this link

Key Takeaways