{"id":8861,"date":"2021-06-11T11:01:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T15:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodwin.edu\/enews\/?p=8861"},"modified":"2024-12-16T17:06:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T22:06:06","slug":"faculty-article-udl-altering-curriculum-to-advance-comprehension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodwin.edu\/enews\/faculty-article-udl-altering-curriculum-to-advance-comprehension\/","title":{"rendered":"UDL: Altering the Curriculum to Advance Student Comprehension"},"content":{"rendered":"

UDL: Altering the Curriculum to Advance Student Comprehension<\/strong>
\nby Amy Beauchemin, Ed.D, Associate Professor of Sociology, Teaching Fellow, School of\u00a0Applied Liberal Arts and Social Sciences<\/p>\n

Introduction to Sociology<\/a>\u00a0is a one-hundred-level class that many students take during their first year at Goodwin University. A diverse student population<\/a>\u00a0takes this course as required by many of our academic programs, including\u00a0Nursing<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Health Sciences<\/a>. When I started teaching Introduction to Sociology, the University provided me with a standard curriculum to help me become familiar with the course. However, I quickly identified a barrier to student learning in the course\u2019s final project.<\/p>\n

I noticed that the design and presentation of the final project did not allow students to\u00a0turn accessible information into usable knowledge<\/strong>, one of the many critical components of\u00a0Universal Design for Learning<\/a>\u00a0(UDL) — an academic framework focused on innovative instruction and learner inclusivity. In particular, the final project incorporated several impediments to UDL\u2019s\u00a0Representation: Comprehension<\/a>\u00a0guideline.<\/p>\n

As a\u00a0Goodwin University Institute for Learning Innovation<\/a>\u00a0(GUILI) teaching fellow, I knew I had to alter the assignment so that students could obtain the information they needed and enhance their overall learning outcomes.<\/p>\n

Analyzing obstacles in the assignment<\/h2>\n

Originally, the final project required students to watch a few episodes of a television show and analyze them through the lens of sociology. Students had to select three sociological concepts discussed throughout the course and explain how the concepts connected to the television show of their choice. By integrating the TV show themes with sociological views, the intent was that students would ultimately \u201csynthesize<\/strong>\u201d their understanding of the course content.<\/p>\n

The original project also tried to incorporate\u00a0scaffolding\u00a0<\/strong>(a teaching method that supports learning by systematically building on student experiences and knowledge as they acquire new skills) by having students complete two worksheets. Attempting to anchor instruction<\/strong>\u00a0and provide students with an \u201cadvanced organization tool,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0the first worksheet focused on details of the television show, while the second centered on sociological concepts. The worksheets were rather detailed, but the purpose was to\u00a0bridge ideas<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by helping students organize their thoughts and receive feedback as they prepared to write a paper on the project.<\/p>\n

Before I even assigned the task, students questioned what to do if they didn\u2019t watch television. Through the UDL\u00a0Representation: Comprehension checkpoint 3.3<\/a>, the framework\u2019s recommendation to\u00a0provide multiple entry points to a lesson and optimal pathways through content<\/strong>\u00a0further demonstrated a shortfall in the original project.<\/p>\n

Students also struggled when selecting the three sociological concepts; they were unsure if they needed to choose book chapters or other topics from the text. Synthesizing the three sociological approaches seemed to be the most significant barrier; students were unfamiliar with the terminology and did not understand the expectation of the assignment.<\/p>\n

When correcting the projects, I also noticed that students did not entirely apply what they had learned throughout the course. They provided basic connections but did not fully\u00a0align<\/strong>\u00a0the sociological\u00a0concepts<\/strong>\u00a0to examples in the television show. Consequently, the assignment did not\u00a0prime, activate, or provide learners the background knowledge or relevance<\/strong>\u00a0they needed to make a more extensive connection.<\/p>\n

Leading the way by adjusting the assignment<\/h2>\n

To help students, I took a critical look at the project to remove the barriers and make it more approachable. First, I thought,\u00a0Why are students limited to a television show? Would the project work with other options?\u00a0<\/em>Then I wondered,\u00a0What is the purpose of the assignment?<\/em>\u00a0If the goal was for students to demonstrate knowledge of sociology through the lens of multimedia, then I needed to find ways to\u00a0guide exploration<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0support information processing strategies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I wanted the class to easily turn accessible information into sound knowledge, so I made meaningful changes to the project.<\/p>\n