Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
You’ve read about Universal Design on the Nora Notes blog before and how important it is to design spaces and activities with everyone in mind. In this post back in May, we showcased Elise Roy’s TED talk all about the ways that applying a Universal Design approach can be beneficial to both people with disabilities and everyone else! The concepts of Universal Design are helpful to engineers and city planners and government officials, but the principles can also be helpful in school and at home when we are designing learning experiences for our students.
Every student has their own unique learning style. In every single classroom, there’s a great deal of diversity, both visible and invisible. This includes race, religion, culture, ability, and so much more. All of these aspects of diversity play into the way that students learn and experience their learning environment. So, how can teachers create learning experiences that are accessible to all students at the same time? That’s right! It’s called Universal Design for Learning.
Universal Design for Learning takes the principles of Universal Design, where we design with all people’s needs in mind, and applies it to the way that we approach the creation of curriculum in schools. It is a tool that teachers can use to make their classrooms more inclusive of all learners, no matter the content they teach. Created by a nonprofit education research and development organization called CAST, UDL encourages teachers to approach curriculum design by thinking about how to break down potential barriers to learning and create flexible approaches to determining what students know and are able to do.
The UDL framework is broken down into 3 main components: Representation, Action & Expression, and Engagement. For all three categories, the framework underscores the importance of providing a range of options to break down any and all barriers to student learning. This might include disabilities, differences in background knowledge or skills, and a range of other aspects of diversity that contribute to the way students learn.
Representation: UDL emphasizes the importance of providing multiple means of representing information, or the “what” of learning. When designing lessons, teachers can consider the ways that information is displayed and how it will be consumed by students, providing alternatives for students with visual and auditory differences. Additionally, teachers should account for differences in vocabulary, reading level, and language proficiency, offering multimedia options where possible. Finally, teachers should consider barriers to students’ comprehension, providing scaffolds and supports that will help students construct knowledge from new information.
Action and Expression: This category focuses on the “how” of learning - the ways that students interact with and respond to the content. UDL suggests that teachers vary the ways that students can respond to questions, offer a variety of options and tools to interact with and reflect on new information, and that they offer differentiated supports in terms of helping students manage complex or multi-step tasks.
Engagement: Finally, there’s the “why” of learning - what motivates students to engage with a task. The UDL framework guides teachers to recruit student interest by offering choices and making learning relevant to their personal experiences, to create a sense of community that draws students in, and to create a classroom culture that encourages students to take ownership of their learning and maintain a growth mindset.
For more information about UDL, watch this overview video
Universal Design for Learning has the power to help teachers create truly inclusive learning opportunities for all students. When we design with these principles in mind, we make it possible for any student to access learning tasks, creating an inclusive learning community that encourages flexibility. To learn more about UDL, visit the UDL Guidelines page on the CAST website. We think this is a tool that all teachers should know about so that they can implement the principles in their classroom. If you use UDL principles to design learning experiences for your students, we want to hear about it in the comments!