Universal Design for Learning

Presuming Competence By Design: A tutorial for systems, environment, curricular, and materials design in learning systems

Requirements

Environmental Barriers – What That Means for Learning Environments

Auditory interferences with learning are common – and potentially increasing instead of decreasing in environments. Those interferences with hearing are not limited to the hard of hearing or to aging individuals. A 2006 study of noise in schools indicates that schools are noisy and have been getting noisier over the years. Check out the article and data in “ On teaching styles, room acoustics, teacher's health, and pupil behavior .”

It seems that the more student-centered our learning environments become, the more noisy they become as well. Students are interacting more with each other, paper is getting moved around, sounds from the computers or other technology join the mix, and a teacher has to raise his or her voice to be heard over it all. However, instead of reducing interaction (because that will reduce learning) to reduce the noise, rooms can be built with absorbers in the ceiling and walls and a reflector over the teacher's usual area (to enhance her sound over the rest).

To often, we modify the instruction to overcome these barriers – and that may be the last thing we wan to modify if the barriers are truly environmental, and not instructional, in nature. For example, reducing interaction among students is not an effective or desirable instructional choice. Interaction – with the teacher, with the content, with each other, and with the environment (Moore & Kearsley, 1995) - is crucial to learning.

These sorts of solutions at the environmental level allow teachers and learners to all function optimally – THAT is the goal of universal design for learning.

“Can you hear me now … ?”

 

Curious what a learner with a cochlear implant will hear? Check out the simulations posted by Dr. Fan Gang-Zeng with the Speech & Hearing Lab at University of California – Irvine :

 

Cochlear Implant Simulations

 

Additional reading:

Gary W. Siebein, G. W., Gold, M., Siebein, G. W., and Ermann, M. G. (2000). Ten ways to provide a high-quality acoustical environment in schools. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 31 , 376-384.