If you were asked, "What's the best way to improve education in America?" what would your response be? More money, more accountability, demand higher standards, more parent involvement, "restore dollars and decision making to those closest to the student by reducing the size and scope of the Department of Education" (Burke & Sheffield, 2013) — the list is nearly endless.
While there are certainly many different ways to contribute to improving education, I suggest there is one powerful way we can begin to make enormous strides in improving education in America today! Change the way we think about education by changing what we believe education and learning is.
If we truly want to change our practice, we must look to what we know and understand education and learning to be. We cannot come to a place of changing what we know and understand until we look at what we believe.
I believe the most responsive and flexible places should be our schools, classrooms and learning environments! Our culture of learning should be where variability and diversity are the norm! Where the individual is empowered, encouraged, and inspired to be the architects of their own learning.
So, how did we get to this "one-size-fits-all" standardized system of education? As many know, the industrial revolution and subsequent assembly line and culture of standardization in America paved the way. Sadly, "by 1920, most American schools were organized according to the Taylorist vision of education, treating each student as an average student and aiming to provide each one with the same standardized education, regardless of their background, abilities, or interest" (Rose, T. 2015.).
Unfortunately, while this system of standardization may seamlessly produce items such as automobiles, microwaves, kitchen tables and other usable and valuable products, I speak confidently it is not the system for educating the most valuable resource in America! We somehow adopted this belief system that education needed to teach to the average standardized student. Unfortunately, there is no average student. According to Neuropsychologist David Rose, "cognitive neuroscience has shown us that there really isn't an average student anywhere, and that's why it's an illusionary average student."
Consequently, we continue to try to "fix" something that is worse than broken. It isn't designed to produce the desired outcome! Albert Einstein said it best, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
The real question is: What is the goal? I purport the goal is to create expert learners who are knowledgeable, resourceful, strategic, goal-directed, motivated, and purposeful (CAST 2012).
So, how is that accomplished? Through Universal Design for Learning. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is not a radical way to teach, it is a radical way to think about how and why you teach the way you do. I am very excited and hopeful to say UDL is the answer to the question: What is the best way to improve education in America?
Universal Design for Learning is a framework for designing and delivering instruction and creating learning environments. We now understand that disability is contextual and learner variability is the norm. The very good news is we now have a framework rooted in neuroscience that we can employ to design and deliver curriculum as well as design learning environments that remove barriers to learning. This focuses the deficit on the curriculum and the learning environment instead of on the student. Subsequently, "individuals bring a huge variety of skills, needs, and interest in learning. Neuroscience reveals that these differences are as varied and unique as our DNA or fingerprints" (CAST 2012).
What do you believe about education and learning in America? The better question: Are you willing to change your beliefs about learning and education?
Burke, L. & Sheffield, R. (2013, May 15) 13 Ways the 113th Congress Can Improve Education in America. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/05/1...
CAST, Inc. (2012) Retrieved from: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/expertlearners
Rose, Todd. (2015) The End of Average, 51. New York, NY: HarperOne.
