Univeral Design for Instruction and Learning Environments
While everyone agrees that learners cover a diverse range of learning styles and needs, delivering the curricula to suit this diversity of learners, including those with disabilities, has been a challenge. Chickering’s (1987) Seven Principles of Good Practice provides the rationale for establishing a flexible and supportive learning environment. While these principles formed the basis of teaching strategies prior to the development of the principles of universal design, they are still used in many instructional programs as they offer a common sense approach to instruction.
Recent theorists offer new approaches to instruction that consider the range of diverse learning needs, and recommend new ways of designing the curricula. The concept of universal design has been recently applied instruction and learning by various institutions and organizations as it presents an attitude and approach to design of services, objects, systems, and environments to ensure that they are equally accessible and inclusive to the largest number of people possible, The goal is to ensure that the services, objects, systems, and environments can be simultaneously experienced by the largest number of people possible.
Scott, Shaw, & McGuire (2003) at the University of Connecticut established 9 principles of Universal Design for Instruction (UDI); they used the original 7 principles of universal design which were architecturally based, (NSCU, 1997), added instructional definitions for each principle, plus added 2 new principles identifying a community of learners and instructional climate as key roles in instruction. Their research has taken place both in university and college environments, moving well beyond the built environment.
The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) identified 3 primary principles as the basis for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and did not use the original principles of universal design as the starting point (Rose & Wasson, 2008). These primary principles have sub categories and offer strategies for teaching that allows for individual differences. While the bulk of the research at CAST has been centered on kindergarten through grade 12 instruction, they have been expanding the use of these principles in higher educational settings to ensure their relevancy for learning of all ages.
Several projects have also been exploring ways to apply these principles to postsecondary instruction. The Curriculum Transformation and Disability Center at the University of Minnesota has several publications based on their research and experience, including “Principles for Applying Universal Instructional Design”. They have developed a list of criteria to guide the design of a course using the principles of universal design.
Whether one uses the principles of UDI or UDL, the outcome is intended to be the same - to increase the opportunity for diverse learners to fully participate in the learning environment. This new view of curriculum design reduces the pressure on an individual person to fit into an inflexible instructional environment as well as reduces the need to provide individualized accommodations or retrofit activities. The point is to ensure that learning and instruction are inclusive, present flexible options, lead to increased independence, and simultaneously experienced by the greatest number of students possible.
Resources:
Chickering, A. W. & Z. F. Gamson (1987). “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” American Association of Higher Education Bulletin 39: 3-7. Retrieved December 1, 2008 from http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm
North Carolina State University. 1997. About UD: Universal Design Principles. Retrieved March 18, 2008 from http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/udprincipleshtmlformat.html#top
Rose, David and Wasson, Jenna. (2008). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines - Version 1.0. Boston: Center for Applied Special Technology. Retrieved December 1, 2008 from http://www.cast.org/publications/UDLguidelines/version1.html
Scott, S., Shaw, S. and McGuire, J. (2003). Universal Design for Instruction: A new paradigm for teaching adults in postsecondary education. Remedial and Special Education, 24(6), 369-379. Retrieved December 1, 2008 from http://www.facultyware.uconn.edu/files/UDI_principles.pdf