cehs.unl.edu
The second area of
Universal Design for Learning
is Representation.
Representation is the
"what" of learning.
This refers to what the students are,
seeing, how they're perceiving it and
how they comprehend the information.
The way content is represented has a
massive impact on the ability of students
to encode that learning
into long-term memory.
Now let's start with a quick exercise.
What do you see?
Do you see
an older woman
or a younger woman?
What if I told you that there's both,
I'll give you a moment to look.
Well, how about now?
Can you see it?
If we add some shading,
how about now?
The way you represent your content is
one of your strongest accessibility
features as a teacher,
you might not have been able to visually
access one or more of the images until
we used a different means of
representation to show it to you.
Utilizing diverse representation in a
Universal Design for Learning framework is
focused on three different domains:
Perception,
which is how we perceive information
that's conveyed to us.
Language and Symbols,
how we gain access across
linguistic variations,
normally occurring within-subjects
specific vocabulary and symbols,
commonly found in mathematics.
And finally
Comprehension,
which is the ability to recall
previously learned information.
Using diverse representation
to improve perception
is about having diverse
modalities for instruction.
While there has been
a longstanding myth
that students learn best in
one format or another,
commonly referred to
as a learning style,
the practice of teaching
content in one sensory domain,
such as primarily
auditory or kinesthetic
has been widely discredited.
Rather,
we learn using all of our
senses at the same time.
It is true
that some students do not have
access to all of their senses equally,
but generalizing that students are
primarily tactile or visual learners
tends to lead to stale instruction
that does not allow students enough
supplemental information
and other sensory areas
to fully encode knowledge into
their long-term memory,
nor the ability to recall and use
that information when appropriate.
While most instructors
use some sort of visual or
auditory information to
supplement instruction,
they frequently prioritize
one over the other.
Think to yourself,
am I the kind of teacher that's
going to use a lot
and a lot of videos?
Or am I the teacher
that's going to use
PowerPoints and lectures to
students while they write notes?
While neither of these are harmful
practices to student learning.
When instruction
only uses one of these formats,
students become disinterested,
which hurts engagement
as we talked about before,
but it also dampens their
long-term access
and understanding.
So again, I can talk from it about
it from two different perspectives.
Cause I teach for my online courses.
I do incorporate lecture,
I do narrated
PowerPoints.
and so I have that aspect,
but then I also, you know,
these are graduate students.
So a lot of learning is on them in
terms of reading, you know, the,
the textbook, the articles,
watching the PowerPoints.
I also include some
webinars or podcasts that
present the content in different ways.
My classes are more collaborative
because I'm teaching
about collaboration
and you can't, it's a
subject that if you don't do it,
you, you have to be able to do it.
And so I think it totally
depends on the content.
There's some classes that I've
taught that are very content-heavy.
This is how you do something.
So I can teach through a lecture,
this is how you do it.
But then if we don't practice that
there isn't that translation from,
this is what you do to how you do.
And I think that is
really important that
you have to teach it in more of a
collaborative application method
for students to really understand it.
But there are times
where you have to lecture
and you have to teach
the content.
But again, it goes to the front-loading.
What does my planning look like?
To really think about that content,
to know what is the best way to get that
knowledge across to the students and
then, you know, act accordingly.
What I've been able to do more is,
and it's not as much as others because
I'm not a technologically-based person.
I'm more a relational-based person.
But being able to use video
clips a lot more
in class,
being able to,
being able to have students
in certain activities
use certain types of technology
to look things up
and to be able to communicate,
depending on the class that it is.
But I am not the greatest
one at being technologically
advanced or necessarily
technologically creative.
I tried to do. There could be videos.
So YouTube videos
that's talking about it,
somebody else's voice.
There are articles to read,
there's a textbook to read,
there's me talking.
So I think it comes across
those different ways.
And again, it,
it kind of depends on the content of
what's going to be the best match for it.
But those would be the different
ways that I incorporate media.
I try to break up the sound of my
voice with video when possible.
I like real people,
so if a class is talking about a
content area and there's a fit for a
guest speaker, I like a guest
speaker to come in, cause I can,
I can speak from second hand
but I feel like if there's someone who
could be sort of a primary source for
something I like that
and it breaks it up and
is a nice, you know.
I guess viewing a person as multimedia
is a little strange, but I do,
I view them as like a
multimedia source.
I like doing
videos, though.
Sometimes the audio
is funky,
so I try not to rely on them.
I always go in thinking like
the video's not gonna work.
So what are you going to do
when the video doesn't work?
And I enjoy case studies, so.
But giving information about
a scenario or a student
and working through a
problem-solving procedure,
or a lesson planning procedure,
or assessment procedure,
and just thinking about
like a real-life scenario,
but in a, a
lower stress environment
than like actually having to go do it.
So role-playing,
I do sometimes if it
makes sense for the content,
actual demonstration, especially for
lesson planning can be really useful.
Like here's how you lesson plan.
Here's what it looks like
when you do it.
If
when you are teaching,
you find yourself only using auditory
information for instruction.
Such as
lecture or verbal
instruction for activities,
go ahead and add some visual or
tactile information to supplement
your instruction.
Further,
if you see yourself relying
heavily on visual information,
make sure to add written descriptions
for images and always have close
captioning turned on for these videos.
Adding these small pieces of diverse
sensory information will
greatly improve your students'
understandings.
Found within
every representation of information
is the use of language and symbols.
We represent information in a
whole host of different ways,
information that you think
might make information
clear to students.
Say an image that supports
your instruction, or a
mathematical symbol,
or a specific technical term
seen only in your content area,
maybe incredibly puzzling to students.
Students that come speaking
multiple languages,
other than English as their primary
language might not understand
exactly what you're talking about.
Until you provide images and
explanation to support your instruction.
Recognize that all your students
come to your class at different
levels of understanding.
Don't be frustrated because you think
your students should understand something
you've already taught or something that
you thought should have already been
clear and they should already
understand it the first time around.
The human brain is diverse
and the role of teachers is to
help students gain these understandings.
There are several steps that teachers
can take to support a student's
understanding of symbols and language.
These are just a few.
Finally,
let's talk about representation
supporting comprehension.
The purpose of education is not to
teach students how to remember
random facts,
but rather to teach learners how to
transform accessible information into
usable knowledge.
Decades of cognitive research
have demonstrated that the
capability to transform
accessible information to
usable knowledge
is not a passive one,
but an active one.
Supporting comprehension through diverse
representation is more closely tied to
lesson structure.
All lessons should include
the two following things.
First activating or
supplying background
knowledge on content
and generalizing that to other areas
and highlighting relationships
and critical features
and big ideas.
Let's unpack that,
activating previous knowledge
is crucial for students to retain
information.
The brain is more likely to retain
information that is an extension of other
information or stitched within a specific
content area
then it is to remember a
novel concept alone.
Consider starting your lesson
with a review of previous
information that will be
crucial to understanding
that lessons content.
This doesn't have to be a
super extensive review.
Five to 10 minutes is plenty,
but it gets students warmed up and
it builds the foundation for them to
connect information to.
Further,
make sure towards the end
of your lesson,
to explore where they might be able
to use the new content
outside of your class.
Now they probably won't go
out searching for these experiences,
but it works similar to the review process
because it creates situational cues
to remember your information.
It means, well, if you
don't do it, students
aren't going to learn
so you have to tie your,
your content to what,
what do they already know?
And so I think it's important
when you're thinking.
I can't just think about my class,
my class fits in
within a whole series
of knowledge that students are
learning in order to be teachers.
And so I have to have a
really good basis
of a foundational knowledge of what
else is being taught.
So I can say,
so remember, when you heard,
this is how it applies
into this situation,
and this is where it
would look in the future.
And so, if I don't make those connections,
I think sometimes students just learn.
I learned this here and here and here,
but how does it all connect together?
And so if I don't activate
that background knowledge,
then it's just words being talked and
there's nowhere to kind of file that
knowledge away.
I have to give it to them, then.
Is I have to form that
either that content
background knowledge that
they need or the experience
and help them think
about it in different ways.
And so maybe they don't bring it
in with them from another class,
but generally, I can tie it to
somewhere in their life,
what they've been through,
their experiences as
being a student.
So I have to fill that in so
they can make that connection
to be able to use in the future.
Activating prior knowledge is
tapping into the students,
kind of understanding of the
content or topic being presented.
To have, make a
meaningful connection
to whatever it is you're
going to be
focusing on.
And so that's important
because it, it, one
kind of primes them for
learning it, it helps them,
it kind of sets the stage for learning
and helps them make that connection.
Instead of,
you know,
assuming they know it or
just going right into it, it,
it really primes them for that learning.
The beginning of the class,
I'll usually
do some sort of activity or
assignment or something to
get a gist of what everyone
knows already, if I'm not sure.
So that I'm again, not
repeating, but building on.
But everyone doesn't
start at the same place.
So when I am providing
content that might be
like redundant or sort of review,
I'll try to just acknowledge
it upfront and be like,
you might already know this if you
do, don't worry about it. If you don't,
don't worry about it.
We're just going to go over this briefly
to make sure everyone's on the
same page.
Now,
you may be thinking this is so much work.
How am I ever going to make sure that
every single part of my instruction is
being explained and I'm in
multiple ways at the same time.
Do not fret!
We aren't saying that every piece of
information needs to be in
multiple formats,
but rather the information that exists
at pinch points needs to be in
multiple formats.
Pinch points are areas of your content
that have been historically difficult for
to teach students on a macro level.
Remember this thing,
this is one of the most renowned pinch
points in all of public education,
the Pythagorean Theorem.
This is an equation that is used to
find the third side in a right triangle.
When we already know two sides.
This piece of information is the
gateway for understanding pre-calculus,
calculus, trigonometry,
physics, engineering,
and so many more advanced math concepts.
And it's also a pinch point in math
because it's difficult to understand
conceptually.
If you can identify areas in your class
where students have struggled before,
like per se,
the Pythagorean Theorem,
focus here with adding
multiple means of representation.
This will save you hours
of reteaching later on.
Add in these diverse modes
of representation and keep
track of how students perform.
This will not only allow you to teach
the most difficult concepts with ease,
but makes adding
Universal Design for Learning
tenants to your instruction
much more manageable.