Fostering Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles through a design thinking approach
Maritza Rivera & Úrsula Bravo
Universidad del Desarrollo
Santiago, Chile
Inclusive education (IE) aims to give every child access to quality education. IE sustains that: 1) every child counts (UNESCO, 1994), 2) the educational system should be able to create opportunities for all, and 3) the learning environment should welcome, protect and educate each child regardless of their gender and physical, intellectual, economic and linguistic characteristics (Ainscow, 2014).
The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) developed the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, a set of practical principles to address these inclusive teaching challenges. UDL supports students with special educational needs and maximizes their learning opportunities. The UDL framework draws upon the architectural principles of Universal Design: including equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use. Accordingly, UDL considers the needs of all potential users from the beginning of teaching planning (Pisha & Coyne, 2001). The UDL principles focus on: 1) providing multiple means of engagement, 2) providing multiple means of representation, and 3) providing multiple means of action and expression. The UDL framework enables teachers to respond appropriately to the diversity of early childhood classrooms.
The recent report on the monitoring of SDG 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development indicates that the effects of the pandemic have increased early childhood inequalities. The report shows a significant gap between those who belong to the first and last quintile of socioeconomic income. The percentage of children under five who experience positive and stimulating learning environments in their homes has significantly decreased (indicator 4.2.3). Likewise, the low attendance of children at kindergartens during the pandemic prevented them from accessing stimulating learning environments.
The learning environments (LE) include physical-aesthetic, psycho-social, and pedagogical-ethical dimensions (Sari Havu-Nuutinen, Niikko, 2014). Adlerstein, Manns y González (2016) characterize LE as: flexible, meaningful, relevant and contextualized, pedagogically purposeful, empowering and participatory, promoting wellness, and inclusive and accessible. Although the Chilean Curricular Bases of Early Childhood Education guidelines instruct teachers to plan and implement meaningful learning environments, they do not explain how to achieve this.
Moreover, even though the UDL principles aim to diversify teaching from planning so all students can access learning opportunities (CAST, 2018), there is little evidence on how to incorporate the needs and interests of students in the ordinary classroom through physical space, material resources and organization of time.
Since design thinking provides a structure that enables educators to creatively face pedagogical problems and think holistically about the special educational needs of their students (Henriksen, 2017; Goldman, 2020), could be a means to support the implementation of the UDL principles to promote inclusive education in ordinary classrooms.
During the last decade, design-based approaches have become popular in addressing complex problems and fostering innovation in different contexts, including general educational settings. A growing number of papers, articles, and books report diverse experiences where design-based methods and tools are used to address pedagogical issues, both at the K-12 (Gallagher & Thordarson, 2018; Goldman & Kabayadondo, 2017; Koh et al., 2015; McIntosh, 2016). At the initial teacher training level, Jordan (2016) has suggested that a design-based approach enables teachers to be more flexible, adaptive, and open to exploring. At the same time, Henriksen (2017) has observed that design provides an accessible structure that enables school teachers to face many problems they must address daily creatively. In the same way, Goldman and collaborators (2020) have observed that using design thinking tools helps educators to think holistically about their students’ special educational needs.
This article will deepen into the results of a previous article presented at the LearnXDesign 2021 conference from the UDL perspective, aiming to understand how and to what extent a design thinking approach can support the UDL principles implementation to favour inclusive learning environments in mainstream classrooms for early childhood.
This case study explores in-service educators’ use of design thinking-based methods and tools during the final seminar of a graduate course. The study involved 35 students from the 2016 and 2017 cohorts who attended the “Seminar on innovation for diversity in school”. All the participants were working educators, the majority being teachers, although there were also psychologists and speech therapists. The information collected included participant observation, reports, forms, and prototypes elaborated by the participants.
A descriptive analysis of the use of Design Thinking as a tool that facilitates the application of UDL principles in creating resources and learning environments in early childhood will be carried out. The descriptive analysis provides a transdisciplinary methodological proposal between design and UDL. From both disciplines, the common objective was to promote in-service teachers applying the UDL principles to favour the learning potential and the integral development of all students within the regular educational context.
References
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Maritza Rivera is a Differential Educator, Graduated in Educational Sciences, Master in Social Psychology and Postgraduate in Family Studies, from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She was the Director and teacher of the Master in Psychopedagogy at Universidad del Desarrollo and she has taught classes for more than fifteen years in undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Early Childhood Education, Special Education and Psychopedagogy. She was Regional Director of the Foundation for the integral development of childhood, Integra (Valparaíso) and the Director of the Diploma in Inclusion for Diversity in the Classroom at Universidad del Desarrollo.
Úrsula Bravo is a designer, a PhD candidate and a Master in Education by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She is the Base Diseño e Innovación’s Editor-in-Chief and Design Literacy International Network member. She has taught for more than twenty years in undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Design and Education schools. She has advised the Ministry of Education in Chile for five years during the school textbooks selection process.
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