Educators go universal : training in universal design for learning

Abstract

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) “is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn” (CAST, 2014). This study aimed to demonstrate how a simple training session in UDL may help educators improve their skills to incorporate the needs, interests and abilities of all learners to access the general curriculum. The research investigated the effect that training educators in UDL in the Primary sector will have on their performance in class. This was achieved by dividing the participants interested to take part in this study, in two groups of six, where Group A, attended two two-hour training sessions (two weeks apart) and Group B attended a two-hour training session in UDL. A UDL Guidelines checklist was filled in twice by the participants, pre- and post- the training sessions. This was done to investigate the extent to which the educators' training methodologies reflect the three principles of UDL and also to find out the effect that the two different training programmes had on the educators. From this study, it was concluded that although four hours were better than just two hours of training, there was still a huge improvement in the way educators stated that they started to meet all their students’ needs, interests and abilities.