Diversity, Disability, and Addressing the Varied Needs of Learners

This chapter presents a thorough examination of international and U.S. legal and educational foundations which justify instructional variation and diversification for all students, particularly for those with disabilities. With the exploration of various instructional frameworks, objective setting, methods and strategies, materials, and outcomes assessment, the reader develops an understanding of instructional diversification and why it is important for students with and without disabilities. The diverse educational approaches of differentiated instruction, multi-sensory instruction, Bloom's taxonomy of learning, understanding by design, and universal design for learning are presented and explained.

Findings of qualitative studies on Understanding by Design: A meta-synthesis

Designed by the meta-synthesis method, the researchers examined the studies designed on the Understanding by Design (UbD) and implemented and their findings were qualitatively evaluated. It tried to obtain a comprehensive and holistic perspective on the effects and reflections of the model. 48 UbD studies were accessed from 6 databases, and 12 research findings were included after three criteria in this meta-synthesis. The findings were reached through a six-stage data analysis process; they were analyzed inductively with content analysis. The validity and credibility of this analysis process have been brought under control with the coding reliability processes and the audit technique. According to the conclusions, in the development of units based on UbD, teachers generally did not create goals/standards by collecting evaluation evidence of UbD; it was concluded that the inadequacy of this was mostly due to model inexperience, the school's facilities/conditions, teacher stagnation and emotional state, and inadequate pedagogy knowledge. Findings showed that teaching based on UbD improves students' cognitive development and participatory insights. This meta-synthesis study guides researchers who want to reference UbD as a design framework in a unit study in the overall assessment of UbD.

Addressing the call: A review of food justice courses in Canada and the USA

To address inequality's root causes both within and beyond the food chain, food justice scholars have called for explicit integration of trauma/inequity, land, labour, exchange, and governance into post-secondary education food studies and related fields. This paper explores how instructors of food justice courses (identified by key-word internet search) in Canada and the United States are designing their courses. We collected course syllabi from fifteen institutions to determine key themes related to course content based on weekly topics and readings, resulting in the identification of 16 thematic content areas. We identified seven thematic areas related to course goals (n=49) and eight thematic areas related to learning outcomes (n=123). To clearly distinguish between themes represented in the syllabi, we embedded course goals and learning outcomes into the Understanding by Design instructional design framework, which demonstrates how course goals can be separated into the categories of transfer and meaning, and learning outcomes into declarative and procedural knowledge. We examine content areas in relation to food justice scholarship, focusing on what is present, underrepresented, and absent. In consideration of the Understanding by Design framework, we discuss the need for established goals within which to situate food justice courses, challenges of course scope, value of scaffolding goals and outcomes across programs, and future directions for aligning potential indicators of understanding and identifying effective learning activities. The intended outcome of the paper is to provide current and prospective instructors with greater clarity on how food justice is being taught in order to increase our collective effectiveness in developing student capacities in the field.

Effect of Play Based Learning on the Development of Logical Reasoning in Early Childhood Education

Objective: To determine the effect of play-based learning on developing logical reasoning in early childhoodeducation in Islamabad.Study Design: Quantitative quasi-experimental study and the pre-and post-experimental paradigm was used.Place and Duration of Study: The population of the current study included the students from Headstart Schoollocated in Islamabad from March 2020 to September 2020.Materials and Methods: The population was selected through cluster sampling technique. Sample size of 80students with 40 each of control and experimental group were considered le. Both the groups were taught acourse 'classification of vertebrates' in Science either through play-based (experimental group) or conventionalmethod (controlled group) in a 45 minutes session, 5 days for four weeks. A pictorial self-developed testconsisted of 6 questions based on understanding by design (UbD was used. Descriptive (percentage andfrequency) and inferential statistics were used for the analysis of data.Results: The control condition (Pre & Post) for the logical development and experimental condition (Pre & Post)was positively correlated. No effect of gender by the play-based learning in developing logical reasoning amongstudents was found in both the control and experimental group at early childhood education.Conclusion: The relationship between experimental and control conditions for the logical development byusing play-based learning was significant. The play-based activities based on the curriculum should be designed to ensure meaningful learning and long-term knowledge retention in children as it ensures a child's interest and fun factor.

Instructional design: How to design the expected learning outcomes of students?

The article is devoted to current issues of lesson design based on student expected learning outcomes. One of the distinctive features of recently approved new Federal State Educational Standards for primary and basic general education is refined and detailed requirements for the expected educational outcomes. In this regard, tools for the teacher to develop those outcomes in order to plan a lesson or a study course in a logical way taking into account the educational interests of students are in dire need. The authors of the article consider the Understanding by Design model as such a tool, since this framework makes it possible to design learning outcomes (distinguishing between understanding, acquisition and transfer goals) and direct the learning process towards desired results. The article provides theoretical foundations for the development of an instructional design model, examines the stages of the design of learning outcomes, the selection of study activities and the identification of teaching strategies. A description of the first stage of design — the design of the expected learning outcomes according to different facets of understanding and of the acquisition and transfer goals — is given in detail.

New Methods of Teaching Natural Sciences – „Design Understanding – Developing the Lesson Backwards“

The article demonstrates how to apply new methods of teaching science by planning the lesson “backwards” and developing an interdisciplinary project, based on educational standards and curricula. The “Understanding by design” approach is applied in the planning of the activity in three stages: identification of the desired results, determination of acceptable evidence and development of the project.