By Matt Magowan
‘Universal Design for Learning goes beyond inclusive environments to ensure inclusive teaching… UDL encapsulates approaches to maximize accessibility and minimize barriers to learning’
United Nations Global Education Monitoring Report, 2020 pp 120
For almost 15 years, a nagging question has lingered in the back of my mind: “Am I creating a truly inclusive learning environment for all my students?” Following a year of professional learning around UDL has led me to perhaps an even more crucial question: “What hidden barriers might exist within my teaching practices that hinder some students’ success?”
An inclusive learning environment means all children, no matter who they are, can access the curriculum. This is of particular importance as Hitchcock et al (2002) argue that contemporary education practices, where curriculum is developed for an ‘average’ group of learners, at the expense of other students further perpetuates an education gap (Spencer 2011).
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework and a set of principles that aims to help educators plan for diverse classrooms and serves as a vehicle to bring about more inclusive education. UDL emphasizes designing inclusive learning environments from the outset, anticipating the variety of learners in a classroom and incorporating options that benefit all students regardless of background, ability, or learning style.
Community of Practice
Whilst we were undertaking whole school professional development around UDL, Boyd and Grossman (2008) highlight the challenges of whole school Professional Development (PD). Keeping professional learning broad enough for a whole school context often fails to provide focused strategies and techniques relevant to specific subject matter. Teacher frustration can also occur when PD content feels irrelevant or does not address their needs which leads to disengagement.
Whilst there is a growing number of research articles on the implementation of UDL within a PE context, it is still quite limited. My co-teacher and I, decided to create an intentional Community of Practise through a book group based on the book ‘Seen, Heard and Valued: Universal Design for Learning and Beyond’ by Lee Ann Jung. The aim was to create space for critical thinking, discussion and a shared understanding of what UDL could look like within our context.
“An inclusive learning environment means that all children, no matter who they are, can access the curriculum.”
Boundary Spanner
Within Physical Education research, the term ‘boundary spanner’ has been used by Goodyear and Casey (2015) as a role of an external expert to help with the implementation of a pedagogical innovation within a teachers practice. Goodyear and Casey (2015) argue the use of a ‘boundary spanner’ allows ‘… teachers to move beyond the honeymoon period to a position, where the innovation was becoming a sustainable part of their ongoing and future practice’
With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, and specifically a UDL AI app, Ludia, we tried seeing how AI might act as a ‘boundary spanner’ with our implementation of UDL.
Photo: UNIS Hanoi
Successes with implementation
The unit that we planned and delivered aligned to UDL was a new unit, Grade 5 inline skating. Whilst we felt this provided advantages – starting fresh and not tied to any preconceived notions as to how the unit may look. When looking for success, it also meant that we could not compare it to anything. As teachers we both observed:
- Development of Self-Directed Learners: The systems that were in place and accessibility of core materials led to students being able to take ownership of their learning by providing them with choices and options. This helped students develop important self-directed learning skills.
- More Efficient Use of Teacher Time: By creating more accessible core materials, this led to a reduction in the amount of 1 to 1 time with students who needed redirections, or clarifications. This meant by creating flexible and accessible lessons from the start, we spent less time on individualized modifications later.
Challenges to implementation
Through this research teachers were able to identify some challenges to implementing a pedagogical innovation, in particular UDL, within their context.
The study found three main roadblocks:
- Misaligned systems: As the school is only starting to roll out UDL, the school’s current learning management system wasn’t designed with UDL in mind. This led to additional work or considerations having to be made by the teachers to create more holistic, UDL informed learning experiences.
- Feeling overwhelmed: The UDL framework can seem complex, with many aspects to consider. Teachers felt like it was a lot trying to implement all aspects of UDL at once.
- Time crunch: Whilst being able to identify elements of UDL within our own practice, to be able to learn about and implement the framework with fidelity takes time. Having space to process professional learning, as well as planning and team conversations around UDL was challenging in an already busy and hectic schedule.
So what can we do?
- Advocate for change: Creating a UDL informed planner is not just about adding an additional box. Conversations within the school about how planning is configured – with UDL in mind will need to happen. Otherwise, an additional barrier to its implementation is placed upon teachers.
- Focus on one aspect at a time: Instead of trying to tackle everything, review your program and practice through the lens of the UDL principles. Then start implementation with a single UDL principle and build from there.
- Seek support: Think about how you can use already scheduled planning time to create space for team conversations around UDL – or see how you might seek out support of a UDL specialist within your community – or like within this project using AI.
This research shows that implementing UDL requires more than just training. By addressing these challenges, we can create a more inclusive learning environment for all students, including those in PE classes.
Matt Magowan is the Elementary School PE Team Leader at United Nations International School of Hanoi. You can connect with Matt on LinkedIn and X
