Week 5

 PART 1

Professional development with universal design for learning: supporting teachers as learners to increase the implementation of UDL is a study to evaluate the benefits (if any) of teachers attending professional development to further their understanding and to effectively implement the Universal Design for Learning in their daily lessons.  The Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, is a framework for educators to used when designing lessons that is made up of three overarching principles, 9 guidelines, and 31 checkpoints to guide lesson planning. The Engagement, also known as the  “Why”principle, recognizes that all learners need to connect with their learning, sustain their efforts, and exercise self-regulation in order to reach their goals. The Representation, also known as the  “what” principle, supports the recognition network and extends learner engagement by representing information in various ways to accommodate sensory and genitive needs of the learner. The Action and Expression, also know as the “how”, principle supports the strategic learning network which centers on individual output of learning. This study was made up of 143 teachers ranging from grades k-12.  The 73 teachers who attended the voluntary summer institute for professional development on UDL were labeled the treatment group and the 70 teachers  who did not attend the professional development were labeled the comparison group.

In order to evaluate the participants, the administration developed a rubric for evaluation.  The evaluation was created for three purposes: observations allow for objective measurements, to be used as a direct observation tool, and to create a level of consistency across all grade level observations.  The five areas that were evaluated are: content-focused training, active learning, models and modeling of effective practices, opportunities for feedback and reflection, and sustained duration.

The data showed mixed findings. The differences in general and special education teachers were not significant.  Special education teachers in both groups improved the most in implementation scores. This could be due to the fact that special education teachers are more equipped in designing, planning and applying practices that align with UDL.  When looking across all grade levels there were no significant differences. The researchers expected there to be a difference, but after reviewing the evaluations there was not enough of a difference to matter.  The research results proved that providing teachers with effective practices for PD can alter the teachers practice within their classroom. Effective PD includes PD that is thorough and provides the teachers with the same areas that were mentioned above that the evaluators were looking for during observations.

The UDL aligns perfectly with the lesson plan template that was provided for our lesson plan.  The triple E framework considerations allow for an educator to evaluate the tools they are selecting to use in the lesson and how they will meet the triple E framework.  This framework works well along side the UDL because the engagement, enhancement, and extend principles of the Triple E work seamlessly with the engagement, representation, and action & expression of the UDL framework. 

PART 2

The area of Enhancement could be used, specifically Optimize choice and autonomy, to enhance my lesson.  I could offer different song choices at the beginning of my lesson and allow the students to choose which song to listen to before I teach the bulk of the lesson.  I could also offer two different activities that the student pairs would use for practicing and I could offer two different boom cards for assessing their learning. My classroom already meets the nature joy and play area of enhancement.  I have many meaningful and intentional centers within my classroom that promote exploration, experimentation, discovery, sensory play, and imaginative play. The second area that I could include in my lessons is within the area of Representation, and specifically labeled Support opportunities to customize the display of information.  I work really hard to make sure my fonts are early childhood friendly. For example, I only use fonts that correctly form the letter q and number 4 so that they are easily recognizable to 4 and 5 year olds.  I would like to explore the appropriate font sizes, image dimensions, and font colors to effectively integrate these elements into my daily lessons, enhancing the students' learning experience. I’m aware that certain fonts are designed to be dyslexia-friendly, and I could incorporate these into my printables, reference posters, and slideshow presentations to support more effective teaching.

PART 3

Educators who implement the UDL in their lesson plan regularly evaluate their lessons to see if they are truly meeting the needs of the students through engagement, representation, and action and expression.  Through feedback from their students they can judge if the lessons are beneficial to the student, engaging, and promoting goal setting and progress monitoring.  By utilizing UDL driven evaluations of curriculum, textbooks, technology and other tools used within lesson planning, educators can ensure they are meeting the UDL framework.