Inclusion is a concept that has become a commonplace in general education classrooms. Inclusion is the practice of incorporating special education students into general education classrooms to promote a least restrictive learning environment for students. To help make this a success for both students and teachers there needed to be a framework to follow to allow all students to reach the curriculum. This framework deemed best practice for teachers was Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL requires teachers to use three principles: multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement. Multiple means of representation provides the student different demonstrations of the
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Students that come from a culturally different background also can struggle in a general education setting. Chita-Tegmark, Gravel, Sepra, Domings, & Rose (2012) found that UDL could be a promising framework to help students that are culturally diverse. They found that a students’ culture affects all aspects of students learning. Culture affects their high-level reasoning, perceptual habits, and students form their behavior habits off of their culture. UDL uses a variety of ways for all students to reach curriculum and express their learning. Teachers need to become culturally aware of their students’ backgrounds to help all students. Allowing students different manners to reach the curriculum and display their learning goals will reach different parts of their brains to improve learning. Allowing students to show their differences in culture will help the whole class be exposed to cultures different from their own and become more culturally diverse. Building a classroom that focuses on how each student learns and what experiences they are building off of affects all students learning in a positive manner (Chita-Tegmark et al., 2012). In the textbook Assessing Learners with Special Needs by Overton, there is an emphasis placed on the concept of making assessment equal for all types of learners. This is once again a major idea of the UDL framework. All students should be assessed based on their individual levels. A student should not be forced to adapt to the assessment. The assessment should be adapted to the student. The end goal is to have the student be capable of displaying what they know regardless of how they accomplish this. It is the educators’ role to make this possible (Overton,
Students that come from a culturally different background also can struggle in a general education setting. Chita-Tegmark, Gravel, Sepra, Domings, & Rose (2012) found that UDL could be a promising framework to help students that are culturally diverse. They found that a students’ culture affects all aspects of students learning. Culture affects their high-level reasoning, perceptual habits, and students form their behavior habits off of their culture. UDL uses a variety of ways for all students to reach curriculum and express their learning. Teachers need to become culturally aware of their students’ backgrounds to help all students. Allowing students different manners to reach the curriculum and display their learning goals will reach different parts of their brains to improve learning. Allowing students to show their differences in culture will help the whole class be exposed to cultures different from their own and become more culturally diverse. Building a classroom that focuses on how each student learns and what experiences they are building off of affects all students learning in a positive manner (Chita-Tegmark et al., 2012). In the textbook Assessing Learners with Special Needs by Overton, there is an emphasis placed on the concept of making assessment equal for all types of learners. This is once again a major idea of the UDL framework. All students should be assessed based on their individual levels. A student should not be forced to adapt to the assessment. The assessment should be adapted to the student. The end goal is to have the student be capable of displaying what they know regardless of how they accomplish this. It is the educators’ role to make this possible (Overton,