THE POWER OF PEER LEARNING: GROUP REFLECTION AS A MODEL FOR UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING (UDL)

Abstract

The challenges of developing a fully inclusive learning environment were brought to the fore through the shift to emergency remote teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic and served to highlight many of the inequalities and deficiencies of meeting learners’ needs in traditional teaching practice. Fortunately, a framework exists to support the enhancement of this teaching space; Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL consists of a set of principles for curriculum development that aims to afford diverse learners equal opportunities to learn by providing more flexible and thus inclusive methods of teaching, learning and assessment. The three core principles of UDL include multiple means of engagement in learning, multiple means of representing information, and multiple means of expressing knowledge. This paper is focused on the present authors’ collective learnings as a peer learning group of university educators participating in the Digital Badge for Universal Design in Teaching and Learning, accredited by Ireland’s National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. We place particular emphasis upon the group’s experiences implementing a UDL re-design of their teaching as part of the Digital Badge. Our analysis of this experience explores in detail each lecturer’s reflective examination of their own teaching, learning and assessment practices; and the practical approaches taken to embedding UDL within these practices. It also considers the impact on the learners involved based on both quantitative and qualitative feedback from practitioners and student cohorts while highlighting the importance of engaging in peer groups. Finally, it concludes with a consideration on how engagement with UDL will impact future teaching practice.