\nNicole Tucker-Smith, Founder + CEO, Lessoncast
\nDavid Reid, Principal, Multistudio
\nMarisa Sergnese, Applied Research and Learning Consultant, Steelcase Learning<\/p>\n
Katie Pace: What are you hearing educators and leaders working in K-12 and higher education say their greatest challenge is today?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nicole Tucker-Smith:<\/strong> The overwhelming thing that I hear is burnout. Feeling overwhelmed, feeling frustrated. Feeling tired. Educators go into education to make a difference and when they feel like they can’t make a difference, it really becomes heavy, and it leads to emotional burnout.<\/p>\n David Reid:<\/strong> There are a lot of big challenges, but one that spans across K-12 and higher education is adapting to the increasing range of individual needs among learners. This should have been recognized years ago. But the fact that it\u2019s happening even more today is why UDL is gaining such popularity now, 25 years after its origins at Harvard. The number of students on the spectrum has been on the steady increase for years. So is the number of students with ADHD. More and more kids have individualized education plans. So it requires more resourcefulness from teachers today to provide differentiated learning. And this is leading to the burnout that Nicole talks about.<\/p>\n Marisa Sergnese:<\/strong> I would underline that school leaders are feeling a lot of pressure to balance that day-to-day. They’re overwhelmed with the number of tasks that they need to address regarding anything from disciplinary issues, absenteeism to inclusive curriculum design.<\/p>\n KP: The topic of Universal Design for Learning is getting a lot of attention, but it may not always be understood. Nicole, please help us define UDL.<\/strong><\/p>\n NTS:<\/strong> Universal Design for Learning was inspired by universal design in architecture. For example, if we look at physical spaces where there may be stairs to an entry, we also need to provide access to individuals who may be using a wheelchair, so a ramp will be available as well. But that ramp isn’t for the exclusive use of someone who uses a wheelchair. That ramp can also benefit those who have a stroller or rolling luggage or a wheeling cart. The idea of universal design for learning is to think about who is most likely to be excluded or left out in a space that’s not fully accessible. It prompts designers and educators to ask, what are the on-ramps that a learner might need, a learner who may be on the autism spectrum, or someone who has ADHD or somebody who simply might be going through an emotional crisis? Then make that option available. When we make those options available, we normalize the reality that everyone needs something different.<\/p>\n The UDL framework has three principles that align to three neural networks. First, what do learners need in order to be engaged and recognize that every learner is going to need something different and even the same individual might be different on a given day \u2013 how do we design for multiple means of engagement?<\/p>\n The second principle is about designing for multiple means of representation. Representation is about connecting to how we perceive information and turn that into meaning. Think about a green and a red apple together. If I\u2019m not familiar with an apple \u2013 the most I may be able to tell you is that it looks like fruit. But if I have background, knowledge and vocabulary, I could tell you they are two apples. I could tell you the green may be more tart, and the red apple may be sweeter. This is representation \u2013 to perceive information and turn it into meaning.<\/p>\n The third principle is designing for multiple means of action and expression. How do they navigate their learning spaces? How do they act and express themselves as they’re going through the learning journey? This is where we want to consider options for interaction. How are learners able to interact with one another, interact with any instruction that may be happening? How do learners express and communicate their ideas? Sometimes we get tied to everything having to be written down, but there are so many ways for learners to communicate.<\/p>\n KP: David, can you help viewers understand the difference between UDL and accessible design and universal design?<\/strong><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> Accessible design is often associated with ADA or the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s incorporated into our building codes. It’s the law. We’re required to follow it. And it’s not just about accessibility for public buildings, but it’s about accessibility for employment, transportation communications and a host of other things. ADA has a lot in common with universal design, but generally universal design strives to be more comprehensive in providing accessibility and is more integrated into the architecture \u2013 everyone can navigate a building more comfortably when good universal design is in place. And this is true for UDL as well. UDL strives to make learning equitably accessible to every learner, whenever possible, having every learner participating in the same space. Whether you’re neurodiverse, or you have a visual impairment or dyslexia or dyscalculia \u2013 which is similar to dyslexia but associated with numbers \u2013 good UDL practices are going to help level the playing field and provide the support you need to overcome these learning barriers. It gives any learner in the room the same opportunities to be successful as a neurotypical learner. Learners do not have an isolated learning style, and there is no average brain. Every student is coming at the same learning challenge, but a little bit differently.<\/p>\n KP: Marisa can you help us understand where inclusive design fits into all of this.<\/strong><\/p>\n MS:<\/strong> Inclusive design is a very powerful approach that aims to ensure every individual, regardless of their differences, can engage fully without any barriers. So inclusive design aligns really nicely with the UDL framework because it allows us to address human differences that are marginalized by standard designs.<\/p>\n Educators can build inclusive classrooms in many different ways \u2013 from changing up the physical space by lowering the lights, moving the classroom desks<\/a> around \u2026 to things like making text to speech software available and having height-adjustable work surfaces.<\/p>\n KP: Nicole, what do you believe are some of the biggest barriers to learning today?<\/strong><\/p>\n NTS:<\/strong> What teachers often say is that students just aren’t motivated. They\u2019re not completing their programs. A UDL mindset reframes that idea: Instead of fixating on barriers within the learner or the student, we think about what may be barriers within the environment. So, instead of saying students aren’t motivated \u2013 we ask what might be barriers to motivation in our design of the learning environment and learning experience? When we do that, we as educators, as learning designers, even as architects, we’re taking back our agency.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re not blaming the individual. We’re thinking about how we can improve the environment to support that individual to fully thrive.\u201d <\/p>Nicole Tucker-SmithFounder, CEO, Lessoncast<\/span><\/cite><\/blockquote>+<\/p>\n KP: David, what barriers have you seen that are creating challenges to learning?<\/strong><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> There are as many barriers as there are learners. What is a big barrier is to one student is a non-issue to another. The beauty of UDL is that it really builds a highly personalized approach to conveying learning to each individual student, and a robust UDL approach can make learning accessible for any number of learner variabilities. There are barriers related to cognitive variances or physical ability, variances related to trauma, sensitivities and socio-emotional variances, and so forth. We also look at positionalities of learners and how these affect inclusiveness and access to learning; things like gender and sexual identities, ethnic and racial identities, socio-economic identities or religious identities. These all affect how students are engaging in the classroom and ultimately affecting their ability to engage the learning in a way that’s successful. Barriers are going to look different from place to place and person to person. Community colleges admit 100% of their applicants, so they have a wide range of learner abilities. Compare that to a four-year, elite research institution that admits 20% of their applicants and there will still be learning barriers, and a broad spectrum of them, but they\u2019ll look different from the barriers at the community college. So, we\u2019ve got to be tuned in to where students are struggling and where students are thriving and try to help address those areas of struggle.<\/p>\n KP: Nicole, what are potential barriers to implementing UDL?<\/strong><\/p>\n NTS:<\/strong> We have to think about implementing UDL on three levels. First, at the leadership level and understanding what systems and structures we need to have in place in order to support a UDL mindset. When I work with school districts and institutions of higher education, I tell them UDL is not about doing a new thing. It’s about re-envisioning the work they\u2019re already doing. It’s about proactively removing barriers upfront, and that might take an investment in time. But you save time in the long run in avoiding what I call unproductive struggle. Then we think about determining the coaching level. Who’s going to support our implementers as they are applying a UDL framework? And then we also think about the instructors and the teachers, and the learners themselves.<\/p>\n KP: David, how are you helping educators think about the design of these learning environments and how they can support the success of the implementation of UDL?<\/strong><\/p>\n DR:<\/strong> We’ve been working the last seven years to develop a resource that ties UDL to space design. We call it the Deck of Spaces \u2013 to help make the adoption of UDL simpler and, quite honestly, more fun. It\u2019s a deck of 60 different idea cards that was designed in collaboration with educators and researchers associated with CAST, the original organization advancing and promoting UDL. The deck isn’t just about space design, it’s also about behaviors and teaching practices in the classroom. Each idea on each card has research citations that take you back to a bibliography so you can begin to learn more. The deck’s primary value is raising awareness of how space can impact various learners, by removing or imposing learning barriers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re not always cognizant of what space is doing to create a learning barrier.\u201d<\/p>David ReidPrincipal, Multistudio<\/span><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n The cards can help people understand how space is a powerful behavioral model for the activities that we want to see in the classroom as part of UDL implementation. It\u2019s the principle of space being \u201cthe third teacher.\u201d \u00a0A simple application of the card deck is having administrators and educators go through the deck and prioritize the top five to eight cards that might resolve teaching challenges they’re seeing in the classroom and begin to gain a familiarity with how space can positively impact the resolution of learning challenges via UDL principles.<\/p>\n KP: Marisa, can you share with us how the UDL framework impacts the design of learning environments?<\/strong><\/p>\n MS:<\/strong> Understanding UDL has provided our team with another tool to approach active learning \u2013 which is focused on flexibility, movement and student engagement. UDL helps us focus on barriers and how we can design spaces that better support all students to thrive. For us, it\u2019s about taking elements from the UDL framework and aligning them to specific design drivers so it can be very tangible and real for people.<\/p>\n Flexible options are important for UDL. Chairs and tables that are easy to move allow students to position themselves in the classroom and face different ways for better collaboration, interaction and to turn to face the entire room. Different types of seating provide spaces that allow learning to take place anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t Spaces that can be easily reconfigured allow for individual agency and can provide different zones for different purposes and experiences at the same time. Different seat and desk heights and types give students more use options. Rounded table corners invite participation from students coming from any direction in the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.steelcase.com\/image\/upload\/c_fill,dpr_auto,q_70,h_656,w_1166\/v1683063210\/22-0179680.jpg\")
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