Article Critique Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning
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September 5, 2017
Introduction
In one of the most cited quotes on the internet today, Amos Dolber a famous Tuft physicist said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” (Quoteinvestigator.com, n.d.). For hundreds of years ever since education was first established as one of the fundamental institutions of our society, the educational process has almost always been based on the traditional classroom setting. This model has been regarded as the most effective way, not only for teaching children but also for evaluating their future “usefulness” for the greater society ahead. This is mainly due to the belief that these established set of teaching templates and methods of evaluation would clearly provide an insight towards the child’s capability. However, this belief has been challenged by other types of approach such as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which emphasize that there exists an inherent difference in terms of the capabilities, skills, aptitude, and even the temperament of children (CAST.org, n.d.). This recognition of the individual differences of children even extends to those with “special learning needs”, as termed by the traditional learning methods that we utilize today. In line with this, UDL seeks out to blur these perceived differences as well as to reach more of these children, by providing an alternative method which would cater for all students and not compartmentalize them into groups. The latter section of this paper would then discuss some of the studies done regarding the effectiveness of UDLs.
The Universal Design for Learning
In a study done by the Dean, et al. (2017), the authors tested new methods of teaching which would cater to students coming from diverse backgrounds. More particularly, they utilized different means for handling a class with 600 students, which includes utilizing tools like “PowerPoint, lecture notes, clickers, and MindTap” and tried to analyze the self-perceived impact on the learning and satisfaction of the students. In relation to the main tenets of UDL, these factors which the authors tried to determine is important especially when handling large cl...