Shifting focus from individuals to the curriculum

The traditional “medical” model of disability and difference places focus on perceived problems within learners. These learners are then seen as needing special teaching, materials, or settings to address their special needs. The UDL lens shifts that focus in several ways. First, by considering all three brain networks in each student, we find strengths and interests that might otherwise be missed in students who do have disabilities or challenges. Second, in the context of flexible technologies and flexible methods, students’ capacities actually change We see that learning takes place (or doesn’t) in the intersection between students’ characteristics or qualities and the kinds of tools, media, and methods that they encounter. Third, then, UDL shifts the focus of our challenge as educators from “problem students” to a “problem curriculum” that is insufficiently flexible to support and challenge diverse learners.

To understand how curriculum materials and methods actually create barriers and missed opportunities for many learners (and not just those identified as “disabled,”) we move from an analysis of each student to a view of the class as a whole. What characteristics in recognition, strategy, and affect stand out for the group as a whole. Is there a talented artist? A skilled athlete? Someone with low vision? Someone who loves animals? Someone highly skilled with multimedia?

In a UDL framework, one of the key actions will be to expand the flexibility of the curriculum to meet these diverse student characteristics. Because the focus is on improving the curriculum to reach all learners, it is not actually critical which learner brings which issue to the classroom. If an issue is there, it needs to be addressed by making the curriculum more flexible, more accessible, and useable by all students in the class. Thus the learning profile of the class as a whole is really what you need in order to take the next steps in implementing UDL.

To learn more about the three brain networks, try the activities, “Your Three Brain Networks,” and “Getting to know you the UDL way”

To learn more about individual differences across the three brain networks, read chapter two of Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning