Session 112: Disabling Environments in Higher Education
Session Host: Tim Fox
Interesting Questions:
The goal that all students learn is held by only about 33% of faculty. Most faculty put blame for not learning on the students.
Question – If we make our courses so that everyone can succeed, how do make the course challenging for the better students. In the sciences, some students do not have the critical thinking skills to become a scientist. We need to sort the students into those that will make it in the sciences and those that should look to other majors.
Larry’s Answer: He agreed that that is a real concern. It depends on where students should be sorted. Beginning classes probably are not the right place to begin the sorting process. Students need to be taught so that they learn the critical skills (or have a chance to learn them) before sorting occurs. Some students don’t have the background knowledge, or are not ready to learn in their freshman year. It is a program issues and not a single course issue. Students should be taught enough so that they can make the decision to change a major rather than be sorted by faculty. There is no easy answer but the principles of UDL can help faculty to ask the right questions.
Question: If HS didn’t teach them to write. At some point it becomes your job to teach them. Push back. Larry agreed. I can set the entry requirement for a course (.e.g., you need ot be able to do math etc.) otherwise you need to teach them missing skills.
What do I really need them to know? Where can I send them on campus for help? How can I teach them?
Question: Who is disabled? I find probamatic. Knocking frameworks around how UDL is set up.
Stigma for disability. Spend years working on stigma, The way Larry is using label disabled is the disabilities is not a disability on one environment but is in another. Students engage in different ways but envoronments favor particiupar ways of learning over others.
Without stairs, mobility may not be a disability. UDL has done is to help us look at the hidden barriers in education.
With a blind students, my language is disabling. My language is visually oriented. Look at this. I need to change how I use the language.
Online course doesn’t require spoken language. No need for ASL interpreter. All students need a level of writing.
Question: How do we deal with the amount of material that students must be taught? There is never enough time to cover it all.
Larry’s Answer: Howard Gardner from Harvard Graduate School asked the same question. At the end of courses in which students were given all sorts of information and examples why didn’t they have a basic understanding of the course content by the end of course. He concluded that they processed a lot of information but couldn’t put it all together in the end. Perhaps they were given too much information and not enough structure to be form usable concepts. He cut out half of the reading, gave less examples, and provided clearer explanations. His student’s did better. Larry also had an experience in which he had to reduce a two semester course into one semester. Although he thought it could not be done, he did it. He had to redo his priorities and really look at what was important for his students to learn. Once completed he considered the one semester course superior to the two semesters. It was a process of defining his goals and teaching critical information.
Summarizing Thoughts and or Questions:
It was an interesting and informative session. The participants had great comments and pushed Dr. Shelton for fuller explanations to their issues. Dr. Shelton’s responses were measured and informative. He has obviously put considerable time and thought into his UDL practice with students. There is never a simple answer to complex issues, but through thoughtful conversation and sharing of ideas, we can find some pretty amazing solutions.