Universal Design for Learning:A Workshop in Three Parts

Kathy HoweryUniversity of Alberta

Calgary AT Presentation

The Series

Day 1 - Introduction to Universal Design for Learning

Day 2 - The UDL Guidelines & Tools

Day 3 - Building a UDL Implementation Plan for my district/school/classroom.

Today’s Session

Setting the Context

Introducing Universal Design for Learning

Exploring some key concepts and ideas.

Let’s Consider:

What do you think about when you hear Universal Design for Learning?

Why does this Matter?

Diversity Ableism Accommodation vs. Accessibility Making Differences Ordinary 21st Century Learners

Diversity

Today’s classrooms are comprised of wide diversity of students who are coming to school not proficient in the language of instruction, who are identified with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, or other disabilities and growing numbers of children who are identified as “at-risk” due to other factors such as socio-economic, cultural and environmental backgrounds.

Inclusive Education

“The new challenge of inclusion is to create schools in which our day-to-day efforts no longer assume that a particular text, activity, or teaching mode will “work” to support any particular students’ learning”

Ferguson, 1995

Setting the Direction

This new framework aims to recognize and respond to disability and diversity within our education system by ensuring that educators, schools, and school authorities have the support they need to develop and deliver an inclusive education system.

The desired end point of this work is that the needs of all students will be met within an inclusive education system

Ableism

An ableist society is said to be one that treats non-disabled individuals as the standard of ‘normal living’, which results in public and private places and services, education, and social work that are built to serve 'standard' people, thereby inherently excluding those with various disabilities.

Wikipedia

Ableism in Education (Hehir, 2008)

Applied to schooling and child development… the devaluation of disability results in societal attitudes that uncritically assert that:

It is better for a child to walk than roll Read print than read braille Spell independently than use a spell checker Hang out with with non-disabled children rather than

only with other disable children.

What is Disability?

What makes someone Handicapped?

While for the individual, the impairment has a permanent aspect, disability would depend from the activity the individual wishes to uptake. The handicap aspect is the disadvantage he encounters in relations with other individuals, so called 'able' people.

http://www.drnbc.org/child.cfm?DPAR_PARENT_ID=2&DCHD_CHILD_ID=248

Handicap = a Mismatch between learner needs and education offered

Handicap is artifact of lack of appropriate relationship between the learner and the learning environment or education delivery.

Jutta Treviranus

What about in the Educational Environment?

There can be many kinds of Barriers that can disable our functioning or “handicap” us.

The bias toward “Naked Independence”

Education places a premium on knowledge that is contained in one’s head

The AT world termed this form of bias ‘naked independence’, as it exults the performance of able- bodied individuals and devalues the performance of others who must rely on external devices or tools.

What if … Failure is Not an Option

Naked Independence

Scaffolding vs. Augmentation

Cheating?

Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology for Learning (ATL) is defined as the devices, media and services used in learning environments to overcome barriers for students with physical, sensory, cognitive, speech, learning or behavioural special needs to actively engage in learning and to achieve their individual learning goals.

Moving to Accessibility – A3 Model

ADVOCACY (Barriers to learning

exist)

ACCOMMODATION (Assistive Technology for Learning)

ACCESSIBILITY (Universal Design for

Learning)

APPROACH

APPROACH CHANGES OVER TIME

Accommodation vs. Accessibility

Accommodation is grounded in the medical model of disability… a professional typically identifies the individual’s functional limitations or “deficits” and prescribes adjustments that allow the person to participate to some degree in the “normal” environment”

Sheryl Burgstahler

Accommodation vs. Accessibility

Whereas accommodation is a reactive approach to provide access to an individual, accessible, usable, and UD processes are proactive approaches to ensure access for groups of potential participants.

Sheryl Burgstahler

Accommodation vs. UDL

Access is a problem for the individual and should be addressed by that person and disability services

Access issues stem from an inaccessible or poorly designed environments and should be addressed by the designer

Access is achieved through accommodations and/or retrofitting existing requirements

The system/environment is designed, to the greatest extent possible, to be usable by all

Access is retroactive Access is proactive

Access is often provided in a separate location or through special treatment

Access is inclusive

Access must be reconsidered each time a new individual uses the system

Access, as part of the environmental design, is sustainable

Source: AHEAD Universal Design Initiative Team

Achievement Gap

Current schooling practices are not effective for some groups of students

Continuing to do what we have always done will perpetuate rather than eliminate the gap

Repeated failure over time creates an achievement gap that is exceedingly difficult to erase

Technology enables Access

Technology can play a crucial role in providing access to the curriculum for students who wouldn’t, under typical conditions, be able to participate fully in the classroom.

As a regular part of the classroom environment, assistive technologies have potential to improve learning for all students.

Assistive to Accessible

Mere access is not in itself the solution to student engagement.

CEC

Making Differences Ordinary!!

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Making Differences Ordinary

How do we make differences ordinary?

Keep classroom supports natural and unobtrusive Fit into the details of the day-to-day classroom

instruction Be perceived by teachers as effective for typical

students as well as for students with disabilities (differences)

Enhance the teacher’s current repertoire of instructional methods.

UDL - What is it?

Let’s review and consider

What is UDL?

UDL is a much-touted approach to providing appropriate and accessible education to all students, including those with disabilities, in the context of the demands of the 21st Century educational environment

Universal Design Extension of architectural concept of Universal Design

Designing for the divergent needs of special populations increases usability for everyone.

Universal Design for Learning

Extends this idea to the classroom: Access to the building Access to the learning

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The Promise of UDL…

When new technologies move beyond their initial stage of development, innovations in curriculum design, teaching strategies and policies will be driven by the needs of students “at the margins”, those for whom present technologies are least effective- most prominently, students with disabilities.

The beneficiaries of these innovations will be ALL students.

Rose & Meyer, 2000

UDL definition

“ the proactive design of curricula (including learning goals, instructional methods and materials, and

assessments) that are accessible and usable by all students with little or no need for additional

accommodations and are compatible with available assistive technology”

inForum, June 2008

Will UDL replace assistive technology?

No. Assistive technologies will always have a role in the

education of some learners. Children with physical disabilities need properly designed wheelchairs, adaptive switches to control devices, or speech synthesizers.

UDL Principles

Three principles that enable every student to access and participate in all facets of learning:

UDL

Universal Design for Learning calls for ... * Multiple means of representation, to give learners

various ways of acquiring information and knowledge, * Multiple means of action and expression, to provide

learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know,

* Multiple means of engagement, to tap into learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation.

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Universal Design for Learning

Each student, regardless of disability, difference, or diversity, needs access to the curriculum that is meaningful and that allows the student to use his or her strengths.

Curriculum?

How do you define curriculum?

Resources

Programs of Study

Assessment

Instruction

The Curriculum

Disabled Curriculum

The traditional, one-size-fits-all curriculum is proving to be an entirely inadequate solution for problems that plague our schools in this era of standards-based reform.

Universal Design for Learning

UDL provides a blueprint (framework) for creating flexible goals, methods, materials, and assessments that accommodate learner differences.

CAST, 2002

UDL - What do we mean?

UDL assumes a continuum of learning differences in the classroom

UDL relies on curriculum being presented in a flexible, engaging and challenging manner.

UDL maintains high expectations for all students.

UDL is inclusive by design.

What do we mean by Universal?

To many people the term seems to imply that UDL is a quest for a single, one size-fits-all, solution that will work for everyone.In fact, the very opposite is true.

The essence of UDL is flexibility and the inclusion of alternatives to adapt to the myriad variations in learner needs, styles, and preferences.

Key Concepts in UDL

Leveraging Diversity Clearly understood Goals Teaming Flexibility Proactive Approach Change the Environment not the Learner

Leveraging Diversity

Change comes from the Margins

What (Assistive) Technology do YOU

use?

Closed Captioning

Pencil Grips / Large Print Books

Sound Field Systems

Spell Checkers

Word Prediction

In Text Messaging

Voice Activated Electronics

Audible Books!

Touch Windows

Innovation in Teaching & Learning

True innovation occurs at the margins

We are pushed further by: Disruptive notions Perspectives that do not fit in Unpredictable inspirations that burst our neat categories

Dangers of designing for the norm

Stagnation Shrinking of ideas Self perpetuating rut Lack of innovation

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Anticipating Diversity

Celebrating Diversity

“We must fundamentally alter our thinking about diversity as deviant, that diversity is bad and must be accommodated. . .

Rather, we need to be clear that diversity is an essential part of the human condition and needs to be anticipated and celebrated.”

Dave Edyburn, Associate Professor, UWM

To leverage diversity we must first understand our learners.

Building Learner Profiles!

Learning Styles

Cultural Background

Readiness

Ability

Learner Experiences….

Understanding Learners

http://education.alberta.ca/admin/special/resources.aspx

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http://www.education.alberta.ca/teachers/resources/cross/making-a-difference.aspx