UDL

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning provides guidelines for practice while teaching  in today's diverse classrooms. It is true now more than ever that school classrooms have students from different cultures, languages, and educational needs, furthermore each person learns best in a slightly different way, and it is important for teachers to do their best to provide the most opportunities for the growth and development of their students in the classroom. Most importantly, the UDL spreads the understanding that there is no one curriculum that is best for every student.

The goals of UDL are simple and boil down to three main points.

1. Represent the material in a variety of ways.

• What one student may not understand can be presented in some other way that may make more sense to said student.
• Learning anything from a different angle increases overall understanding for students

2. Provide a variety of tasks to reinforce learning.

• Some students may respond better to hand on examples.
• Other students learn by discussion or reading.
• Others learn best from organizing ideas in their notes.

3. Offer options that engage students in learning.

• Some students may not be able to do an assignment for any number of reasons, this does not mean they should miss out on getting credit for it.
• Choices in assignments allow students to have some control over their learning which gets them more involved in the process as a whole.

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning began from the same ideas that fueled the civil rights movements, and continue to do so, and that is providing equal opportunity for every person. The main idea of the organization is to break down barriers to learning. Barriers such as socioeconomic status, health issues, or disabilities should not limit the experience or potential of any person to learn and grow. 

The UDL's approach focuses on the curriculum, to eliminate constraints that exist within the foundation of the learning /teaching/evaluating process so that it is more accommodating to a larger portion of today's students. For example what makes sense for sally may not make sense in the same way to Susan, or Mitchel, but that does not mean Susan and Mitchel are slow, or stupid. They just learn differently to Sally.  Those students should not have to suffer or be frustrated in class just because the design of that class does not include or incorporate the way they learn.

Breaking the barriers for learning is not the same as lowering standards, or making the coursework easier, or simpler, in any way. It just means taking a look at standards that are exclusive or only have a single implementation. and adapting them to be more versatile, Which in many cases extends the range and depth of coursework, leading to greater understanding from all students.