In this week’s reading materials, I learned certain insightful information about UDL, UID and UbD. UDL refers to Universal Instructional Design and it is based on seven principles. It focuses that the instructional materials and environment should be accessible and fair to students. As for UID, it means Universal design for learning, which emphasizes on providing multiple means of representation, expression and engagement in the process of learning.

What impresses me most is the use of UbD. According to McTighe and Wiggins (2013), UbD, understanding by design, is beneficial for teachers to design a goal-based framework for students’ learning. When teachers plan the assessment at the same time as they create teaching contents, teacher would have a clear mind to match what to cover in the lesson. Overall the likelihood of having coherent, focused, and related learning activities increases. In my opinion, I concur that teachers should set the goal to help students to use knowledge meaningfully. Traditional classroom focuses more on teachers’ interactive teaching skills and multiple teaching methods. However, at the same time, they should take the goal for students to use the knowledge into consideration. If they do so, students would connect facts and create meaning, which means deeper learning is possible to true understanding.

Generally speaking, educators should know more about UbD framework and apply it into teaching.

Reference

McTighe, J.& Wiggins, G. (2013) The Understanding by Design® framework https://files.ascd.org/staticfiles/ascd/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf