Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Glen Eira College Curriculum Day 

Every student is an individual, with different background, strengths, interests and challenges. 

Our recent staff curriculum day focused on the topic of Inclusion. Each student’s individual circumstances can at times put barriers between them and their learning. We all – staff, students and families – share the responsibility of helping them engage with their learning and have the best opportunity to succeed. 

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework has been chosen as the school’s framework for implementing inclusion in the classroom. UDL is based on extensive research and evidence, and is readily applicable to the Glen Eira College setting. 

In the morning a UDL expert, Jade Hand, presented an interactive session with staff. Her key message was that all students can learn to high standards. If we can anticipate the barriers that students might face in our classrooms, and then design our lessons to remove these barriers, then all students can access the lessons and learn effectively. The framework for designing such lessons requires teachers to consider three factors, shown in the diagram below. 

For the rest of the day, teachers and support staff worked in teams to design lessons using the UDL principles, tools and strategies. Teachers quickly noticed that we already use many of the strategies in the UDL toolkit, and the UDL framework sits comfortably with us because of this. It encourages us to reflect on the effectiveness of our current teaching practice, and provides us with a framework to continue developing.  The plenary session, where teachers shared stories of practice and future plans, was a highlight. 

The day was a positive and exciting one. We will continue working on embedding the UDL framework at Glen Eira College, and look forward to seeing how this develops over time and what benefits this will provide our students and our classes. 

Colin Shnier

Learning Specialist (Differentiation – Inclusive Practice)