The Goodwin University Institute for Learning Innovation

Our Research

Professional Deveopment at Goodwin

Our research centers on identifying transformative teaching and learning strategies that are applicable across academic disciplines and postsecondary and professional contexts.

Goodwin University Universal Design for Learning Professional Development Pilot

Principal Investigator: Diana J. LaRocco, Ed.D.
Funding: Davis Educational Foundation, Inc.
Active: Yes
Duration: 2016-2019
In 2016, Goodwin received a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation to provide Goodwin faculty with long-term, job embedded professional learning in Universal Design for Learning (CAST, 2011) mastery of learning outcomes. Job embedded PD take place during the workday, in the workplace, and is connected directly to faculty work. The project has three main goals:

  1. Increase each faculty participant’s knowledge and skills related to the implementation of UDL in a course taught by the faculty participant.
  2. Create a model of professional learning that effectively meets the students' needs.
  3. Increase student engagement and mastery of learning outcomes.

Fidelity Study

Principal Investigator: Diana J. LaRocco, Ed.D.
Co-Principal Investigator: Paula Dowd, Ed.D.
Funding: Unfunded
Active: Yes
The primary purpose of this participatory action research is to explore and describe the degree to which participants adhere to the Universal Design for Learning framework (CAST, 2018). A fidelity of implementation framework (Stains & Vickrey, 2017) provides the lens for examining adherence. Second, this study will describe participants’ reports of the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to implement the UDL framework in their courses. Third, it will describe participants’ reports of their confidence and competence in implementing the UDL guidelines in their courses.

SoTL Study

Principal Investigator: Diana J. LaRocco, Ed.D.
Funding: Unfunded
Active: Yes
The purpose of this exploratory case study is two-fold. First, it will describe faculty members’ reports regarding their research self-efficacy in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as it relates to the application of Universal Design for Learning (CAST, 2018) in their courses. Second, it will describe faculty members’ reports regarding their research reflections in light of the content, process, and underlying premises or assumptions undergirding the application of UDL to their courses.