The impact of professional development training on faculty’s integration of universal design for learning in daily teaching practices

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ABSTRACT Even though Inclusive Education (IE) is required both legally and socially, it is often not implemented in the day-to-day teaching practice of faculty in higher education (HE) institutions. Professional development (PD) training is considered an important means to address this discrepancy, however, its impact on the long-term implementation of IE is unclear. This exploratory study is the first of its kind to systematically investigate the impact of three factors – PD training design, participant characteristics and organisational culture – on faculty’s subjective learning gains and the sustained integration of universal design for learning (UDL). Utilising a quasi-experimental design, we administered a survey to faculty members who had engaged in various PD trainings related to UDL at a prominent Norwegian university. Our findings indicate that HE institutions should establish two conditions to support faculty in the implementation of UDL in their teaching practice: extended training rather than brief sessions and creating platforms for ongoing discussions on UDL even beyond the training.