The role and fuction of Universal Design for Learning as a technique in cereating more inclusive learning systems at a time of change for schools and teachers. Presented at ODS Summer School in Marathon, Greece on 15 July 2014
2. Setting contexts
Global change and emergence of new learning priorities:
crisis, power and ownership
Transforming educational systems: linkage to quality,
outcomes and employment
The Inclusion Imperative: access, equity and innovation
Understanding difference: student diversity in a changed
world
Policy to best practice – design, integration and
sustainable values
Introducing Universal Design for Learning
3. 1. Global change
Patterns of constant change
Permanent migration mobility
Outsourcing
Flexible structures and modalities
Obsolescence of job norms
Knowledge economy
Ecological pressures
End of certainty
4. Challenges to the
system
Persistence and increase in inequality
Permanent hopelessness of excluded
Embedded violence and internal underclasses
Social polarization
Stripping away rights
Invisibility, ethnic difference and the retreat to denial
Role of learning
5. Accelerating inequality
12 m.: numbers with more than $1m. to invest (9,2% increase
since 2011)
$46,2 trillion: aggregate wealth of this group (10% increase
since 2011)
Ultrarich (>$30m.) surged 11% (now 35,2% of all millionaires)
World Wealth Report: RBC Wealth Management & Capgemini Financial Services (June 2013)
Declining social mobility
Rising income inequality reflected in declining equality of
opportunity
Global Wage Report 2012/13, ILO (Prof. Miles Corak, Journal of Economic Perspectives 2013)
6. Mainstream: nightmare or
opportunity?
Mythology of the ‘normal’
Defining the mainstream: what have we become?
Robust probing of social structure required as a
preliminary to defining mainstream
Masking power, relationships and inequity
Need to avoid cliché and assumptions
Learners are immersed in and emerging into this
changed constellation – of which educators may know
little
7. 2. Transforming educational systems
Education is both structure and process
Aims and goals vary considerably
Education systems mirror world, society and
relationship-matrix of which they are part
Education systems are as much constraining as
liberating
Forum for ideas or market for products?
Or both….?
8. Critical perspectives
Traditional schooling in the spotlight
Learning systems both reflect and lead society
Information…wisdom…understanding
Critical enquiry - back to Illich
Reflection and inquisitiveness
Engaging with difference
9. Knowledge in transformation
Commodification of knowledge
Impact on education systems (Freire, Illich, Field)
Impact on work (Braverman, Haraszti, Davis)
Impact on community - alienation and anomie
From community to networking
Knowledge and learning now centrally linked as
product and process dimensions
10. Traditional models
Conservative
Strict
Hierarchic
Inflexible
Memorization and recall focus
Examination-driven
Resistant to application of new technologies
11. Potential models
Pupil/learner centered
Competence driven
Community focused
Technologically enhanced
International engagement focus
Learning process (application modes)
Individual value (humanistic approach)
12. Current realities
Disruptive classroom behaviors
Absenteeism
Early school-leaving
Teacher burnout
Migration, integration and sustainability
Literacy, numeracy, basic skills
Languages
Quality and governance
DG EAC (2008) European Education and Training Systems in the Second Decennium of the Lisbon Strategy, NESSE and ENEE.
13. 3. The Inclusion Imperative
Five key issues:
1. Measures to reduce early school leaving
2. Priority education measures in relation to
disadvantaged pupils and groups
3. Inclusive education measures in relation to pupils with
special needs
4. Safe education measures in relation on the reduction
of bullying and harassment
5. Teacher support measures.
14. Defining inclusion
Social inclusion can be defined
as a number of affirmative
actions undertaken in order to
reverse the social exclusion of
individuals or groups in our
society
INCLUSO (EU 7th Framework, 2009)
15. Defining exclusion
A multidimensional process of
progressive social rupture, detaching
groups and individuals from social
relations and institutions and
preventing them from full participation
in the normal, normatively prescribed
activities of the society in which they
live.
H. Silver, Social Exclusion: Comparative Analysis of Europe and Middle East Youth,
Dec. 2007. (Wolfensohn Center for Development, Dubai)
16. Probing inclusion
Not necessarily benign
Not necessarily desired
Not necessarily valued
Inclusion or conformity?
Exclusion often seen minimally as lack of access
Exclusion is a systematic policy of inequality and
denial of rights
Hugely different implications
17. Shaping real inclusion
If learning, working and production are
controlled inclusion is at best token, at worst
sinister
At the core of inclusion must be ability to
assess critically and express freely
Fundamental to inclusion is ability to ask
questions that challenge existing relations
Inclusion re-examines existing reality while
posing viable alternatives
18. Trajectories of inclusion
Youth and mass unemployment
Demographics: ageing and life expectancy
Women and labor market participation
Immigration, cultural and religious difference
Disability
Conflict, stress, anomie
Urbanization, dissent and democratic deficits
19. Meaningful inclusion
Inclusion changes both sides – the act of
mainstreaming is to change the mainstream not the
‘excluded’
From objects to subjects
Narratives of adaptation and discovery
From target group to citizen
Critical role of teachers
Inclusion and the dialectic of rights
20. 4. Understanding difference
Student variability – what does it mean?
First there was access – the struggle for universal
education
Education as a right not privilege
Starting with gender
Ending with society
21. Schooling history
Relatively recent – mass public schooling only in
19th Century
Highly segregated:
gender
class
language
religion
ability
22. Catering for all – how and why?
Is education a right?
Who pays?
Setting standards
Assessing outcomes
Purpose and vision
Impact of ICT
23. Legacies of excluding systems
Legacies of segregated schooling
Gender
Disability
Religion
Ability
Language
Class
Unequal school systems mirror unequal society
Schooling is not separate from wider socio-political
environment
24. 5. Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning is a set of
principles for curriculum development that gives all
individuals equal opportunities to learn.
UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional
goals, methods, materials and assessments that
work for everyone - not a single, one-size-fits-all
solution but rather flexible approaches that can be
customized and adjusted for individual needs
25. Universal Design
Originally it referred to designing buildings, products and
environments that are accessible to all sections of society
including the aged and those with disabilities of all kinds.
The 9 principles:
Equitable use
Flexibility in use
Simplicity
Perceptible information
Tolerance for error
Low physical effort
Accessible size and space for approach
A Community of learners
Instructional climate
26. Design for All (DfA)
The name of the European initiative associated with ICT inclusive products
and e-accessibility (Web Accessibility Initiative/WAI)
Design for All (DfA) embraces the idea that it is possible to produce ICT
goods, which can be accessed to all potential users without modification,
or, at least products should be easy to adapt to different needs, or should
use standardized interfaces that can be accessed simply by using assistive
technology.
International standardization considers principles of universal design, ISO
20282-1:2006 provides requirements and recommendations for the design
easy-to-operate everyday products, taking into consideration design
requirements for context of use and user characteristics aiming at ease
of operation.
27. Key focus
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that
addresses the primary barrier to fostering expert
learners within instructional environments: inflexible,
“one-size-fits-all” curricula.
Inflexible curricula raise unintentional barriers to
learning.
In learning environments individual variability is the
norm, not the exception
UDL addresses learner variability by suggesting flexible
goals, methods, materials and assessments that
empower educators to meet these varied needs.
28. Universal Design for Learning
The universal design concept was transferred to the education field
and applied to the learning process and learning environment, so
now termed universal design for learning (UDL)
Universal Design Learning is a framework for learning that includes
all students. Being grounded in socio-cultural theory, UDL views
learning environments and social interactions as being key
elements in development and learning.
The key principles driving UDL include:
flexibility, simple and intuitive instruction, multiple means of
presentation, success oriented curriculum, appropriate level of
student effort, and appropriate environment for learning.
29. UDL Curriculum
The purpose of UDL curricula is not simply to help
students master a specific body of knowledge or set
of skills, but to help them master learning itself— to
become expert learners.
Expert learners have developed 3 broad
characteristics:
1. strategic, skillful and goal directed
2. knowledgeable
3. purposeful and motivated to learn more
31. Structural framework
CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology)
established 1984
First Federal grant from NSF 1994
UDL defined. CAST invents “Bobby” 1995
CAST Advisory Council established 2005
National UDL Taskforce established 2006
First Statutory definition of UDL 2008
National Center for Universal Design established 2009
University of North Carolina academic expertise
32. UDLnet focus
Among first UDL projects in Europe
Implement foresight process to map and propose
effective methods to support modernization and
development of digital competencies
Review international scientific evidence and
educational stakeholders’ views to identify and
analyze emerging trends, opportunities and
challenges in education and eLearning
Collect, implement and test a series of participatory
engagement activities to improve uptake, sharing
and reuse of inclusive teaching and learning
practices
33. General objectives
To improve classroom practice and raise
awareness of European educational
communities on inclusive teaching and learning
practices
To improve teachers’ work practice, combining
ICT skills with innovations in pedagogy,
curriculum, and institutional organization
To redesign, adapt and personalize curricula
and instructional methods
To create a learning environment that helps
each student develop his or her full potential
34. Principles
At the core of Universal Design for Learning
is the principle of equity and inclusion.
UDLnet Best Practice Guidelines for design
and implementation of inclusive resource-
based educational activities as a reference
to be adopted by educational stakeholders
To develop a detailed and systematic
methodology with the view to provide/collect
inclusive teaching and learning practices
35. Challenging times
How do we include at a time of crisis and economic
efficiencies?
How do we distribute resources equitably?
How do we alter minds, prejudices, inherited bias?
How do we extend inclusion in an innovative
manner?
Ho do we establish the primacy of educational
vision?