by: Dr. Seanna Takacs<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I begin to explain Universal Design for Learning to any audience, it is often received as paradigms and theories are: with quiet reservation until the audience can see where the rubber hits the road. What does this mean for my teaching? What does this mean for my time? How will I translate any of this into my course and do I really need to? I already work hard to meet the accommodation plans, why are we talking about design?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This first blog post of mine is a bare bones explanation of\nwhy I value UDL because asking these beautiful questions (Renner, 2005) is the\nbest place to start. Without going into any models, without strategy, target,\nor expectation, I would like to share why Universal Design for Learning is\nimportant to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have worked with children, teens, and now young adults\nwith disabilities since the beginning of my career. I have been an instructor\nand teacher myself. I have researched the norms and the margins to know who\nfits, who could fit better, and why. I have seen that we tend to design\nactivities, courses, and curricula based on what a person should<\/em> know, and largely what they should<\/em> know is bound to tradition. In experiential learning\nsettings we design what a person must know in order to succeed in a job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When that design is done, and the syllabus is drawn up, we begin\nto deliver our course. It is the beginning of a course but it is also the start\nof a test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who will get it and who will need more? Once we see who\nneeds more, the scramble begins. Who seems lost? Who has unexpected behavior?\nWho needs repetition? Who is leaving the room in a panic? Who is being\ndisruptive? Who is not coming to class?<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a curriculum in place, we move to the task of jostling\nand rejigging and retrofitting to include as many people as possible. Inevitably,\nthe folks who have been tested and are not quite hitting the mark, feel and\nknow that they are at the margins and rapidly moving outwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Extensions, notetaking support, tears at office hours,\nsudden absences, leaving the room, frustration, withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students who don\u2019t fit might need to go to Counselling or\nAccessibility Services or have quiet talks about Early Alert. Students who\ndon\u2019t fit need specialized services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I need a reason to have support and extra help. What is\nwrong? What is that called? Who will believe me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many ways of not fitting. We have a thorough\nlanguage and a thorough system to name our concerns, strategies to remediate\nthe problems, specialists to check in with, and ways to monitor ourselves. Come\nback and try again when you have better ways of fitting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have seen this from age 3 to age 63, from preschool to\nretraining, from kindergarten readiness, to university transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like UDL because it starts with the margins (Rose, 2016).\nIt starts the curriculum design process with the people who don\u2019t fit and by\nstarting with not fitting we start with inclusion. Instead of a retrofit, we\nimagine the broadest scope right from the get-go. We start with a challenge to\ndo better, differently and innovate beyond ourselves. Two of my favourite\nresearchers on phenomenological contextualism, in their most recent book\n(Atwood & Stolorow, 2019), have remarked that it is working with the\nhardest cases that has driven the field of psychiatry forward. It is the\nindividuals whose behavior is beyond the pale, whose experiences mean taking\ndown a mountain one spoonful at a time that drive innovative practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like UDL because we get to start with everyone, we get to\nlook at the margins as an opportunity for curiosity and to push education\nfurther that we could imagine. By starting with the margins we get to ask\nourselves, \u201cWell, why not? WHY NOT?\u201d and persevere for answers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that universal design for learning means that we\nstop trying to include as a moral imperative and start including because it\u2019s\nexciting, innovative, and has the capacity to amaze and delight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To me, UDL is hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renner, P. (2005). The art of teaching adults: How to become an exceptional instructor and facilitator<\/em>. Vancouver: Training Associates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rose, T. (2016). The\nend of average: How we succeed in a world that values sameness.<\/em> San\nFrancisco: HarperOne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stolorow, R.D. & Atwood, G.E. (2019). The power of phenomenology: Psychoanalytic\nand philosophical perspectives<\/em>. New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by: Dr. Seanna Takacs When I begin to explain Universal Design for Learning to any audience, it is often received as paradigms and theories are: with quiet reservation until the audience can see where the rubber hits the road. What does this mean for my teaching? What does this mean for my time? How will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[45,44,49,41,42,46],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning-design","tag-higher-ed","tag-higher-education","tag-post-secondary","tag-udl","tag-universal-design-learning","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A TEST.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I AM NOT FITTING.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I AM NOT FITTING.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I AM NOT FITTING AND I NEED A REASON.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n