Achieving the Transformational Vision for Universal Design for Learning: Guest Associate Editor Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-178
Author(s):  
Dave Edyburn
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Associate Editor ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Design For Learning ◽  
The Relationship

The potential of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has captured the imagination of policy makers, educators, administrators, teacher educators, as well as educational researchers. Over the past 20 years, there has been increasing interest in how the vision of UDL could be translated into practice. And yet, there is little agreement about whether or not UDL is a design intervention and therefore the responsibility of publishers and instructional designers as they create curricula and instructional materials. I am pleased to introduce this guest column that profiles the work of Drs. Matthew Marino and Eleazar Vasquez as they describe the relationship between executive functioning and learner variability in inclusive classrooms.

scholarly journals Reimagining Disability and Inclusive Education Through Universal Design for Learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Doolittle Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
White Male ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Regular Classroom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Design For Learning

In 1975, Congress enacted a law eventually known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which ensures that children with disabilities receive a free, appropriate, public education. Since then, scholarly and popular debates about the effectiveness of inclusive education have proliferated and typically focus on the ability or inability of students with disabilities to succeed in so-called regular classrooms. These debates reflect widespread assumptions that the regular classroom is rightly the province of nondisabled students and a neutral, value-free space that students with disabilities invade and disrupt via their very presence and their costly needs for adaptation. But as many scholars in the field of Disability Studies in Education (DSE) have argued, these discussions often fail to recognize that the space of the regular classroom, far from neutral, is constructed for a nondisabled, neurotypical, white, male, middle-class "norm" that neither reflects nor accommodates the wide range of diverse learners within it, regardless of whether these learners have been diagnosed with a disability. A DSE perspective sees the educational environment, not students with disabilities, as the "problem" and calls for a Universal Design for Learning approach to education, or the design of instructional materials and activities that allows the learning goals to be achievable by individuals with wide differences in their abilities and backgrounds. Agreeing with this DSE perspective, this article uses an autoethnographic approach to reexamine inclusive education and to consider how university classrooms, pedagogy, and curricular materials can be improved in order to accommodate all students, not just those with disabilities. Ultimately, the article argues that Universal Design for Learning has the potential to radically transform the meaning of inclusive education and the very concept of disability.

Universal Design for Learning

2017 ◽  
pp. 38-59
Author(s):  
James Cressey
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Curriculum Materials ◽  
Instructional Planning ◽  
Elementary Teacher Education ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Design For Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for curriculum and instructional planning through which educators can maximize accessibility and minimize barriers that are often experienced by learners. Teacher educators are in a unique position to introduce UDL to future elementary teachers and support them in developing inclusive pedagogical methods early on in their careers. While Common Core State Standards can guide educators in what to teach, UDL provides a framework for how to teach. Education technology tools are used extensively within UDL to make curriculum materials more accessible and engaging. In this chapter, the UDL framework will be described along with many specific applications within elementary teacher education.

Establishing Considerations for Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility in Online Courses

2021 ◽  
pp. 474-495
Author(s):  
Aisha S. Haynes
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Design For Learning ◽  
University Support

Students with and without disabilities are enrolling in online courses. Universal design for learning (UDL) and accessibility strategies should be implemented proactively when designing and developing online courses. Quality assurance and accessibility standards, university support, professional development, and instructional designers are important for instructors to successfully design online courses and teach online. The purpose of this chapter is to provide educators with strategies for implementing UDL and accessibility in online courses.

Universal Design for Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-158
Author(s):  
James Cressey
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Instructional Planning ◽  
Elementary Teacher Education ◽  
Culturally Responsive Practices ◽  
Design For Learning ◽  
Structural Inequities

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for curriculum and instructional planning through which educators can maximize accessibility and minimize barriers that are often experienced by learners. Culturally responsive practices strengthen and complement UDL by framing accessibility as an equity goal and prompting educators to examine ableism, racism, and other structural inequities. Teacher educators are in a unique position to introduce UDL to future elementary teachers and support them in developing inclusive pedagogical methods early on in their careers. Education technology tools are used within UDL to make curriculum materials more accessible and engaging. In this chapter, the UDL framework will be described along with culturally responsive applications within elementary teacher education.

Toward More Inclusive Education: An Empirical Test of the Universal Design for Learning Conceptual Model Among Preservice Teachers

2020 ◽  
pp. 002248712096552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Júlia Griful-Freixenet ◽  
Katrien Struyven ◽  
Wendelien Vantieghem
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Growth Mindset ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Design For Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) holds considerable promise to create inclusive educational environments. Nevertheless, the most recent theoretical UDL model, which includes both teachers’ philosophy and praxis of teaching, has never been tested empirically. Therefore, this study aims to validate the UDL model as a “whole” among preservice teachers. Results show that the three philosophical constructs of UDL predict the performance of preservice teachers’ practices associated with UDL. These constructs are growth mindset about learning, self-efficacy to implement inclusion, and self-regulation and motivation for teaching. Results also show that preservice teachers think and reason about UDL not as three separate principles (i.e., engagement, representation, action, and expression) but in an interrelated way as the analysis shows them to be a unidimensional factor. Finally, this article discusses the implications of a validated model on UDL for teacher-educators, practitioners, and researchers.

Curriculum innovation with Universal Design for Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 90-103
Author(s):  
Giovanni Arduini
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Educational Success ◽  
Curriculum Innovation ◽  
Design For Learning ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Relationship

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is one of the approaches that most effectively emphasize the concept of individual uniqueness, at international level: each of us perceives the world in a different way, acquires and processes information in different ways, has multiple intelligences and skills. The trend of contemporary teaching places the focus on the characteristics and needs of the learner, so it is essential to recognize and value each member belonging to the class, including pupils with disabilities and learning difficulties. With the UDL it is possible to overcome the idea of modifying teaching activities at a later stage for those students who present difficulties, it starts from a design phase that already contemplates the differences between learners. Moreover, the relationship between the UDL, Information and Communication Technologies and disability highlights that ICT can facilitate daily teaching practice, renewing it and promoting significant learning that promotes the educational success of each learner. The conscious use of ICT is in fact one of the actions proposed by the UDL, in particular to achieve the flexibility sought in truly inclusive curricula.

Establishing Considerations for Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility in Online Courses

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisha S. Haynes
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Design For Learning ◽  
University Support

Students with and without disabilities are enrolling in online courses. Universal design for learning (UDL) and accessibility strategies should be implemented proactively when designing and developing online courses. Quality assurance and accessibility standards, university support, professional development, and instructional designers are important for instructors to successfully design online courses and teach online. The purpose of this chapter is to provide educators with strategies for implementing UDL and accessibility in online courses.

Adapting English as a Foreign Language classes to the needs of students with hearing impairments in early elementary education

2018 ◽  
Vol LXXIX (1) ◽  
pp. 12-20
Author(s):  
Ewa Domagała-Zyśk
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Early Elementary ◽  
Hearing Impairments ◽  
Teaching Resources ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
Design For Learning

Increasingly, deaf and hard-of-hearing students are attending mainstream and integrated schools. It is necessary to provide a number of adaptations, sometimes modifications, of the teacher’s instructional methods and forms for their education to be effective. The purpose of this article is to discuss the issue of adapting English as a Foreign Language classes in early elementary education to the needs of students with hearing impairments. Effective education in this area requires syllabuses, textbooks, and teaching resources that are developed in accordance with the principles of universal design for learning and then necessary adaptations and modifications that are planned on an individual basis following children’s needs and abilities. The author suggests the principles of universal design for learning according to which foreign language instruction for students with hearing impairments should be planned. Due to the internal diversity of this group of students, not only methodological procedures should be individualized but also instructional forms and methods used during English classes as well as the methods of presenting instructional materials by the teacher or other students. In order to optimize the reception and transmission of content, appropriate external conditions that are adapted to individual students’ perceptual and performance abilities need to be provided. Also, the diversity of ways in which students with hearing impairments present their knowledge and thus actively participate in classes is pointed out. Suggesting different adaptations, the author emphasizes the need to take care that instructional materials maintain their full substantive value.

Beyond Novelty

2020 ◽  
pp. 22-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic Fovet
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Pedagogical Innovation ◽  
Design For Learning

This chapter examines how fully accessible teaching and learning, and particularly Universal Design for Learning (UDL), currently attracts much attention in higher education (HE) as an innovative pedagogical approach. Having highlighted all the dimensions of UDL that currently qualify it as “innovative”, the chapter further examines the concept of pedagogical innovation and what constitutes such a perception within the field. It is argued that far from being new, the notion of accessible teaching and learning draws from other pedagogical concepts and schools of thought that are well established in the literature and very much traditional and readily accepted. The chapter discusses that despite this recent “framing” or branding, UDL is not so much a novelty as a return to a fundamental questioning on the part of educators and instructional designers around engagement and social justice and their place in pedagogy.

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