Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of Representation - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

When developing a course using the first principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us. The third, Comprehension focuses on maintaining clarity about the content provided.

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships.

These distinguish what is vital information from noise or unimportant information.  This is one of the key skills that experts display over laypeople.  Highlighting key patterns allows the learner to efficiently allocate their time and identify what is important.  Thus the most effective way to make information more accessible is to offer explicit cues to identify what features of the information matter most.  Try to:

§  Highlight or emphasize key elements in text, graphics, diagrams, formulas

§  Use outlines, graphic organizers, concept organizer routines, and concept mastery routines to for focus on key relationships

§  Use multiple examples to emphasize critical features and some non-examples to illustrate them

§  Use prompts to draw attention to critical features

§  Highlight previously learned skills and how they can be used to solve unfamiliar problems 

By following these suggestions, your course will assist students communicating and expressing their knowledge, as well as being in line with the Principle of Representation in the Theory of Universal Design for Learning.