Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is the framework, backed by research, that guides the development of learning environments to accommodate individual learning differences.
- Equitable Use: provides the same means of use for all users with diverse abilities, and design is appealing to everyone
- Flexibility in Use: design to accommodate a wide range of preferences and abilities
- Simple & Intuitive: easy to understand and use regardless of the user’s experiences, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level
What are the 3 main principles of UDL?
Three main principles of UDLRepresentation: UDL recommends offering information in more than one format. ... Action and expression: UDL suggests giving kids more than one way to interact with the material and to show what they've learned. ... Engagement: UDL encourages teachers to look for multiple ways to motivate students.
What is cast in UDL?
CAST is a nonprofit research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
Why are the 3 principles of UDL important?
Each principle has a set of detailed guidelines which provide an evidence-based approach to understanding how we can improve learning through tools and resources. Each principle is aimed at helping educators improve how we present information, engage students, and create inclusive assessments and evaluations.
What are the principles of applying UDL?
The UDL approach to instruction includes three principles: (a) multiple means of engagement, (b) multiple means of representation, and (c) multiple means of action and expression; UDL is designed to meet the unique needs of all learners through challenging instruction that is both flexible and varied (Hitchcock, Meyer, ...
What does cast stand for?
The acronym "CAST" derives from the original name of our organization, Center for Applied Special Technology. Now we're simply CAST.
What is the purpose of the cast UDL guidelines?
The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.
What is the UDL principle 4?
UDL invites instructors to think objectively—making no assumptions about learners' abilities or experiences, and eliminating biases in methods of expression—about what engagement with and mastery of their course material looks like.
What is the purpose of universal design for learning UDL?
Universal design for learning (UDL) is a teaching approach that works to accommodate the needs and abilities of all learners and eliminates unnecessary hurdles in the learning process.
Why is universal design for learning UDL important?
Why is UDL important for education? The UDL approach offers guidelines for making informed decisions about what practices are optimal and ensures comprehensive instructional design practices that can address a full range of learning abilities and disabilities present in any group of students.
What is an example of universal design for learning UDL?
One great example of universal design for learning is creating classroom routines that help students feel secure. While this helps adapt to students with disabilities such as autism, it's good for all students to get used to classroom routines.
What is the UDL principle of action and expression?
The action and expression principle contains three guidelines: Provide options for physical action. Provide options for expression and communication. Provide options for executive functions.
What are the four components of UDL?
Four highly interrelated components comprise a UDL curriculum: goals, methods, materials, and assessments.
What is the UDL principle 4?
UDL invites instructors to think objectively—making no assumptions about learners' abilities or experiences, and eliminating biases in methods of expression—about what engagement with and mastery of their course material looks like.
What is UDL full form?
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.
What is engagement in UDL?
The engagement principle means that the students ALWAYS know the goal(s) of the lesson and what the standard(s) is that you are reaching for in the lesson. By being clear about our goals, we help to recruit interest and help students sustain effort and persistence when things get challenging.
What are the UDL guidelines?
The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.
Why are UDL guidelines updated?
Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.
How are UDL guidelines organized?
The UDL Guidelines are organized both horizontally and vertically.
How are the Guidelines related to the UDL framework?
CAST’s UDL Guidelines are a tool to support educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and more to apply the UDL framework to practice.
Why were the UDL Guidelines developed?
Many stakeholders shared with us that the three principles of UDL were a useful start in designing for variability; yet, these stakeholders also felt as though the principles were too vague and that more specific guidance was needed. In 2009, we developed the first version of the UDL Guidelines in response to this important feedback. We hoped that these guidelines would provide concrete support to educators who were eager to apply the UDL framework to practice. Since that time, we have revised the Guidelines to incorporate feedback from the field as well as expanding research in the areas of UDL, education, cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience. The FAQ “ Why are there multiple versions of the Guidelines? ” provides more information on the evolution of the UDL Guidelines.
Who are the Guidelines for?
CAST’s UDL Guidelines are a tool to support teaching and learning. They can be used by professional educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to apply the UDL framework to practice in a learning environment. We also believe the Guidelines can be valuable to learners themselves: they can act as a tool to support individuals in deepening their understanding of their own learning processes.
How do the Guidelines align to the learning brain?
While there are thousands of networks specialized for different functions, some of the differences we can observe are systematic and predictable. We can proactively anticipate and plan for these differences. UDL emphasizes three large brain networks that comprise the vast majority of the human brain and play a central role in learning. These networks include: the affective network (how learners monitor the internal and external environment to set priorities, to motivate, and to engage learning and behavior), the recognition network (how learners sense and perceive information in the environment and transform it into usable knowledge), and the strategic network (how learners plan, organize, and initiate purposeful actions in the environment). Each of these networks tend to be spatially distinguishable in the brain: the affective network is generally buried in the center of the brain; the recognition network is located in the back/posterior regions, and the strategic (motor) network is positioned in the anterior/front of the brain. While it should be noted that all the networks work together, CAST focuses on this simplified model of the brain to highlight what is relevant for the learning brain and to try to understand and plan for learner variability.
How can the Guidelines be used?
The UDL Guidelines offer a systematic structure for addressing these barriers and for intentionally planning for learner variability. To address the needs of all of our learners, we need to be purposeful, proactive, and reflective in our design by constantly referring to the Guidelines as we plan our learning experiences. The Guidelines are not meant to be applied to just one aspect of the curriculum or to just one group of students. Instead, the Guidelines are a tool to support the development of a shared language in the design of goals, assessments, methods, and materials that lead to accessible and challenging learning experiences for all.
Why are there multiple versions of the Guidelines?
Since that time, we have collected and specifically solicited feedback from the field. This feedback along with the expanding research in the areas of UDL, education, cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience has led us to develop different representations of the Guidelines. We don’t consider any of these representations the “correct” version; instead, each of these representations has a particular goal and traces our learning not only as an organization but as a field more broadly.