An introduction to Universal Design for Learning
Note: This ECNUAS READS 2020 is the first collection of book reviews of ECNUAS teachers. This book was given out to teachers on June 30, 2021, when this talk took place at ECNUAS theatre.
Introduction
Is international education for all a dream? This is a question that I often think about recently. I felt this dream was too far to be actualized because most international schools or bilingual schools in China select students. In fact, many international or bilingual schools are quite competitive in terms of student selection owing to their seemingly better education outcomes compared with other types of schools. Our school ECNUAS seemed to be on the way to becoming this type of competitive bilingual schools too. Not sure if this is good thing or bad thing.
There are two issues in this approach though. One is that this approach contradicts the principle of educational equity. ECNUAS charges high tuition fees, as a result, this education is already not affordable to many low-income families. We may think we would leave the government to figure out how to provide quality education to low income families, without concerning this type of education inequality incurred by selecting students. However, we took a step further to reduce accessibility of our education. Besides high tuition fees we still add one more filter when selecting students. We test students before we admit them. Consequently, not all students can benefit from our education that we provide because of these selective admission processes.
Another issue of selecting student by testing is that this approach is not sustainable. It is impossible for every school to select higher achievers as their students because there aren’t so many higher achievers in a population. According to the normal distribution, 95% of a population lie within two standard deviations from the mean. If many schools build education models only targeting the first 2.25% of the population, this approach is just not possible.
From this year, this kind of selective student recruitment practice for entry grades (Grade 1 and Grade 6) is prohibited by the government. In the place of admission tests, a lottery system that allocates students into their selected schools is introduced. To some extent, the right of choosing schools is now given back to families and students. They get to choose where to study; they get to choose if they want to attend free public education or go to fee-paying private education. Consequently, it will be a new normal that our ECNUAS, like any other schools in China, will receive learners at different levels and with different backgrounds. For those who choose us from outside the school, we wouldn’t know them until they registered and showed up in our classrooms.
While every teacher knows that learn variabilities exist in any class and in any school, each of us often wishes to teach classes with minimal or no gaps in terms of students’ academic background, learning skills, and motivation. We know, in reality, this kind of situation just never happens. Now this good wish is even going away from us faster since private schools have to recruit students at the same time when government schools do and private schools also have to be subject to an education lottery system. It seems that we as teachers will have to adapt to this new normal by accepting diversity and variabilities, and by creating solutions to differences.
This stance of embracing diversity is actually always part of our ECNUAS mission.
“We integrate the best of eastern and western educational philosophy and practices. On the backdrop of educational reforms in China, we strive to seize the opportunity of the age to create a Chinese-English bilingual education that meets the developmental needs of every child, that lays a solid foundation for their life-long learning, and that builds a competitive edge and collaborative abilities for their future lives. The teaching and learning in our schools is characterized by four main features including high quality, integration, multi-culture, and love.
To this end, we identify and utilize high quality educational resources locally, nationally, and internationally, create and provide every child with a rigorous bilingual curriculum that is focused, systematic, multi-cultural, and full of options. We require and support each staff member to uphold the highest professional standards when they work with children and when they develop as professionals and leaders. ”
There are two places highlighting “every child” in this mission statement. Our previous understanding could be developing every child who was already admitted by the school. Now given the new normal, probably we will have to revise our understanding in a way that it will include every child who would possibly enter our classrooms from any backgrounds.
I will try to cover the following topics in the talk today.
§ Know the framework and practices of Universal Design for Learning
§ Understand the different perspectives of Universal Design for learning
§ Review UDL practices in ECNUAS
§ Reflect on possible improvements with regard to differentiation in ECNUAS
What is UDL
Let me introduce Universal Design for Learning, in short UDL first. UDL is a framework for curriculum development that provides all students with equal opportunities to learn. The framework provides a blueprint for creating challenging instructional goals, methods, materials and assessments that accurately assesses learner progress (Rose and Meyer, 2011).
So, the UDL is an approach to curriculum planning, or more precisely lesson planning framework in order to make the learning in classroom more inclusive. The planning framework encompasses all areas of the lesson plan.
IB promotes UDL as an inclusive pedagogy. “Develop knowledge of UDL to move from differentiated instruction for some students to a proactive design of the curriculum for all students.” (IB, 2019)
“Universal Design for Learning (UDL) involves a proactive design of the environment and the curriculums. By providing students with multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement as is done in UDL, students are given equal opportunities to learn.” (IB, 2020)
Three areas of concern are mentioned in the quote, including representation, action and expression, and engagement. The identification of these areas is informed by our knowledge about our brains. Recent research in neural science or brain science has provided us with more insights regarding how we human learn and grow.
There are three types of neural networks in our brains, each of which supports our learning in its own way while all the three work together in a coordinated way. The development of the UDL framework, which includes the three areas of concern, has been based upon the recognition, strategic and affective neural networks in the brain.
www.cast.org
Different people have varied recognition networks; therefore, the teaching should provide students with multiple means of representation. By representation, we mean what to learn; it concerns perception, language and symbols, and comprehension of factual content knowledge.
Different people have varied strategic networks; therefore, the teaching should provide multiple means of action and expression for students. It concerns how to learn, it includes students’ physical action, expression and communication, and executive function during the learning processes.
Different people also have varied affective networks; therefore, the teaching should provide multiple means of engagement. This concerns why students should learn. The reasons should be made explicit to students in order to motivate learning. Considerations in this area should foster interest, effort and persistence, and self-regulation in students.
As teachers we know learner variability exists in every classroom. A number of factors cause learner variability.
First of all, the processes of learning coordinate many parts of the brain and involve multiple neural networks. “…neuro-variability…reminds us that learners do not have an isolated learning “style”, but instead rely on many parts of the brain working together to function within a given context.”
Second, brain is not a fixed organ as it changes during the processes of learning. Brain has its plasticity and it evolves as “learning is a constant growth process constructed over time”.
Third, prior knowledge and past experiences of learners affect learning. What the learner knew and experience provides background of learning. Obviously, different learners carry distinct prior knowledge and experiences.
Four, the brain is goal-driven and different people may respond to goals differently. Therefore, it is important to make learning goals to learners as explicit as possible.
UDL curriculum planning framework
After we learned some general knowledge about UDL and the brain science behind this curriculum framework, let us delve into the UDL approach to curriculum planning.
Obviously, the UDL guidelines comprise of three planning areas, which are engagement, representation, and action and expression.
In each area, there are still three aspects to which the teacher should consider options for varied learners. For the purpose of engage all learners, options for recruiting learners’ interest, sustaining effort and persistence, and cultivation of self-regulation should be considered. Linking with learners’ recognition networks, multiple means of representation should be provided and in this area optional perceptions, language and symbols, and comprehension methods should be considered. A variety of learning strategies must be created to accommodate recognized learning styles. Strategies of physical actions, ways of expression and communication, and development and practice of executive functions can be considered in this area.
Next, let us take a quick tour of each aspect to further understand strategies that can help us plan and conduct more inclusive lessons for all learners.
Engagement-Affective Networks-Why
Provide options for Recruiting Interest (7)
Optimize individual choice and autonomy (7.1)
Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity (7.2)
Minimize threats and distractions (7.3)
Provide options for Sustaining Effort & Persistence (8)
Heighten salience of goals and objectives (8.1) Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge (8.2)
Foster collaboration and community (8.3) Increase mastery-oriented feedback (8.4)
Provide options for Self Regulation (9)
Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation (9.1) Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies (9.2)
Develop self-assessment and reflection (9.3)
Representation-Recognition Networks-What
Provide options for Perception (1)
Offer ways of customizing the display of information (1.1)
Offer alternatives for auditory information (1.2) Offer alternatives for visual information (1.3)
Provide options for Language & Symbols (2)
Clarify vocabulary and symbols (2.1) Clarify syntax and structure (2.2) Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols (2.3) Promote understanding across languages (2.4)
Illustrate through multiple media (2.5)
Provide options for Comprehension (3)
Activate or supply background knowledge (3.1)
Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships (3.2) Guide information processing and visualization (3.3)
Maximize transfer and generalization (3.4)
Action&Expression-Strategic Networks-How
Provide options for Physical Action (4)
Vary the methods for response and navigation (4.1)
Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies (4.2)
Provide options for Expression & Communication (5)
Use multiple media for communication (5.1) Use multiple tools for construction and composition (5.2)
Build fluencies with graduated levels of support for practice and performance (5.3)
Provide options for Executive Functions (6)
Guide appropriate goal-setting (6.1) Support planning and strategy development (6.2)
Facilitate managing information and resources (6.3)
Enhance capacity for monitoring progress (6.4)
https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
If you feel there are too many points of consideration, probably you can just keep these three key questions in mind when you plan a lesson for all learners in your class. Certainly, the premise of doing this is that you have already known your students very well. You have their backgrounds, abilities, prior knowledge, learning styles all in your back of mind as the context of your planning and teaching. Then you ask yourself,
Does the lesson provide options for engaging all learners?
Does the lesson use different ways to present information to learners?
Does the lesson facilitate varied learners’ actions and expressions?
You may want to go into more specific aspects in each question. But if you can address the above three questions, your lesson would be already more inclusive than before.
A small UDL study at ECNUAS
At last, I will share the results of one small study related to UDL at ECNUAS. Over the last two months last year, I observed 26 lesson across three divisions. Most of them were in the high school division. These lessons cover a range of subjects, including Chinese, English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Arts, Music, and Theory of Knowledge.
For each of these 26 observed lessons, I conducted an analysis of the teacher’s practice using the UDL framework. I brought an observation table, which shows the three areas of UDL framework and all the 31 aspects, to each class, and recorded evidence observed as to each aspect.
For example, if one teacher uses the white board, PPT, and handouts, I would take a note beside “Offer ways of customizing the display of information” (1.1) under “Provide options for perception” (1). For example, if one teacher allows students to present their work using computers or online platforms, I would take a note beside “Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies” (4.2) under “Provide options for Physical Action (4)”.
After I gathered all the observational data, I counted the number of evidences in each strategy as shown in the table. For example, I collected 51 evidences as to Provide options for Sustaining Effort & Persistence (8) while I found 19 evidences as to Provide options for Executive Functions (6).
Based on the 26 observed lessons, it seems that I had more evidences of options for representation (128) than evidences for engagement (108). Options for actions and expressions have the least number of evidences (91).
Among all the nine aspects, Provide options for self-regulations has the least number of evidence, Provide options for executive functions has the second least number of evidence, followed by Provide options for expressions and communications.
I also recorded some typical examples of techniques or strategies that I observed in each area.
For example, in options for self-regulation, I see teachers,
§ Encourage slower groups to complete tasks
§ Control time limit of an activity
§ Ask students to fill in a handout
§ Encourage students to summarize or self-assess
For example, in provide options for executive functions, I see teachers,
§ Timing for organizing learning materials
§ Highlight good habits of reading
§ Discuss learning objectives with students
§ Give options for students’ homework
Improvement in three areas
As I mentioned above, I observed fewer evidences on Provide options for self-regulations has the least number of evidence, Provide options for executive functions, and Provide options for expressions and communications. So, likely these are the areas on which we should pay more attention and make greater improvement.
Two of the three aspects concern How students learn, while the other concerns Why student learn. It could be a reminder to us that we should consider more of how our students learn in our classrooms, or in other words, ways of learning. Teachers tend to pay more attention to what to teach and how to teach, but sometimes forget effective learning only happens when students know how to learn and why to learn.
In terms of options for expressions and communication, I collected some examples that may be applied to your lesson planning and teaching.
§ Student practice with a scripted piece, write own pieces, constructive feedback, present to the class, write reflections
§ Students use various ways to demonstrate knowledge, e.g. videos, discussions, quizzes, debates, group work
§ Assessments are linked with DP final exam style questions to build skills necessary
§ Students may use technology or various formats to demonstrate their knowledge as alternatives to written assessments
§ Both talkative and quieter students have varied ways to express what they know during a lesson
In terms of options for executive functions, I also collected some examples that may be applied to your lesson planning and teaching.
§ Students work in groups and each group has a set of instructions. They discuss progress and write reflections. They present to the class and others provide feedback.
§ Students have opportunities to assess their own work and engage in peer assessments.
§ Teacher breaks down tasks to help students to complete them.
§ Provide learning materials online and provide access to all students ahead of time.
§ Teacher incorporates higher order thinking skills in teaching (e.g. how to learn, how to evaluate information, how to self assess).
§ Teacher helps students develop strategies and skills to manage larger, long-term assignments (e.g. EE, personal research project)
§ Teacher meets with students one-on-one to discuss about progress and set goals.
Self-regulation has the least number of evidences from the 26 observed lessons. Here are some examples that we can learn from.
§ Teacher uses a variety of assessment formats aiming to differentiate for learners’ strengths and weaknesses.
§ Students have chances to clarify learning, review and assess whether they truly understand.
§ Teacher considers learners’ emotional needs and developmental stages when creating an engaging space for learning for all.
§ Students have freedom to ask questions in connection with real-life or hypothetical scenarios during a lesson.
§ Students can suggest how they want to learn.
§ Teacher asks learners to plan daily or weekly goals and update progresses.
I hope my introduction to UDL today provided with some initial knowledge about this useful curriculum planning framework, hence help you create more inclusive lesson plans, units, and courses for all learners. Remember, our school mission is to meet needs of every child and we aim to provide a quality school curriculum to every child.
I don’t know how you would respond to the question Is International Education for all a dream? that I raised at the beginning of the talk. But I think at least I have made you think about this question, and have helped you link a solution to this question with the universal design for learning framework.
Some of you might continue to explore this framework, some of you might not. As long as several you will study it and experiment with it, I believe we will see more good examples of inclusive classrooms in ECNUAS.
References:
CAST (2018). Universal design for learning guidelines version 2.2 [graphic organizer]. Wakefield, MA: Author.
Rose, DH and Meyer, A. (eds.) 2011. A Practical Reader in Universal Design for Learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Harvard Education Press.
IB. (2020). Learning diversity and inclusion in IB programmes.
IB. (2019). Meeting student learning diversity in the classroom.
IB. (2016). Using universal design for learning in the IB classroom.
www.cast.org
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