Principle of Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

Universal Design for Learning

Principle of  Action and Expression - Guideline 3 - Criterion 2

When developing a course using the second principle of Universal Design for Learning, there are three specific guidelines to assist us.  The third, Executive Function, allows us to take advantage of our environment and overcome short term reactions to reach our long term goals. 

Criterion 2 of this guideline advocates that we support planning and strategy development.

After setting a goal, skilled problem-solvers plan a strategy for reaching that goal. Adult learners in new domains, or learners with factors that impede executive functions in any domain, often skip strategic planning necessary to complete tasks.  Instead, they inefficiently jump right to a trial and error phase. Offering a variety of options, such as reflection points or graduated scaffolds that encourage implementing strategies, greatly assists learners. It can also lead them on the path of becoming talented mentors, when they share these strategies with others. 

Some features to promote this include:

• Embedding prompts to reflect before acting
• Requiring learners to demonstrate their understanding by showing and explaining their work.
• Provide checklists and project planning templates for understanding the problem. This promotes setting up prioritization, sequences, and steps the learner can schedule and oversee the completion of difficult tasks
• Embed coaches or mentors that discuss or encourage reflection of the process
• Supply advice for the reduction of long-term goals into reachable short-term objectives. Even by structuring a course this way, students learn by example.

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