Equal Opportunity for All: The Universal Design for Learning Framework

Equal Opportunity for All: Applying the Universal Design for Learning Framework in Your Classroom

Date: Friday, September 13, 2024

Time: 9:00am to 4:00pm

Location: Hanahau'oli School Professional Development Center, located at 1922 Makiki Street, Honolulu HI 96822

Cost: $200 per person

How can teachers meet the variety of learner needs in their classrooms in an equitable and proactive manner? This workshop is aimed at providing interactive learning activities and resources for both experienced and more novice teachers, which will support exploration into the Universal Design for Learning framework (UDL). UDL is a research-based set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful and challenging learning opportunities. They include:

• offering information in more than one format (multiple means of representation)
• giving students more than one way to interact with the material and to show what they learned (multiple means of action and expression), and
• looking for multiple ways to motivate learners (multiple means of engagement).

Through the unpacking of UDL guidelines and principles from the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), participants will understand ways to positively impact the learning of students with a unique constellation of strengths, challenges, and experiences based on scientific insights into how humans learn best. Participants will also be supported as they develop a specific plan for applying the framework to their own teaching practices. By applying UDL principles, teachers will build flexibility into their instruction to support students with different life experiences, states of developmental progress, and ways and rates of learning to create a sense of belonging for each learner. Participants will walk away with strategies to use tomorrow and into the future.

Lunch will be provided.

Workshop Participants:

The intended audience is preschool through 12th grade general education teachers who hope to support all the learners in their classrooms. The framework can be applied to learners of all ages. Participants may choose to attend as part of a school or grade level team. Teacher education faculty may also be interested in attending.

Workshop Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

• Embrace learner variability and understand that it can be addressed through the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework.
• Describe the UDL guidelines and principles to give all learners an equal opportunity to succeed.
• Apply the UDL framework to their respective classroom settings to better meet the needs of all learners.

Workshop Agenda:

9:00-9:30 Introductory Activity and Discussion

9:30-10:00 Why UDL? An Overview of the Framework

10:00-10:30 Introduction to UDL Guidelines and Principles

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:00 Zooming in on the Guidelines and Principles: Engagement and Representation

12:00-1:00 Lunch (provided)

1:00-1:45 Zooming in on the Guidelines and Principles (cont.): Action and Expression

1:45-2:15 UDL and Equity

2:15-2:30 Break

2:30-3:30 Application of UDL to Your Setting

3:30-4:00 Sharing and Wrap-up

About the Facilitators:

Leah S. Muccio, PhD is an associate professor of early childhood education in the College of Education at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. A former classroom educator, she teaches early childhood teacher education courses and supervises teacher candidates in the field. Her research focuses on equity pedagogy, early childhood curriculum, and teacher education and professional development. The aim of Muccio’s scholarship is to promote joyful learning in the early school experiences of culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse young children, their families, and their teachers.

Michael Sheehey, MEd is an assistant specialist in the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He has served as a program coordinator, course instructor, practicum supervisor, and mentor of preservice special education teachers for 12 years. He currently coordinates the Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education Program. His research interests include: inclusion in early childhood education, universal design for learning, early intervention, culturally responsive pedagogy.