To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. That learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin (hooks, 1994, p.13).

Before we can teach our students, we must connect with them. You have likely seen the quote, “Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care”, by John C. Maxwell. And you have likely noticed that it rings true. As you read this blog, we invite you to consider how you are connecting with your students. Ask yourself:

• What do I know about the students with whom I work? What do I not know?
• How does this knowledge inform my work?

As college professors, we teach an incredibly diverse group of students who come to us with a vast array of experiences, knowledge, beliefs, skills, mindsets, and more. Students come to us with hopes, motivation, and a desire to strive for better in their lives, and quite often, in the world. It is our job to provide rigorous and accessible opportunities for each and every one of them to engage in learning that is authentic, critical, and that strives for growth.

An inclusive and responsive pedagogical approach that is asset-based and affirming is called for to work toward such an endeavor. In contrast to a deficit-based approach, an asset-based approach is informed by learning science research and cognitive neuroscience. It proposes that there is no average learner and all students bring their own unique thoughts, culture, language, experience, identity and perspective to their learning. According to CAST (2018, p.1), “Variability is the dominant feature of the nervous system. Like fingerprints, no two brains are alike.”

In order to support learner variability within the classroom, evidence-based frameworks, such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), can be used to design learning environments that are inclusive, responsive, and challenging for the strengths, needs and interests of every learner (CAST, 2024). Universal Design for Learning provides opportunities for learners to actively participate in the learning process and make choices in service of their own learning goals. It focuses on:

• Engagement: Do students care about what we are learning?
• Understanding: Am I providing them with the tools to construct their own understandings?
• Action and Expression: Can students demonstrate their thinking?

Some ideas for incorporating the UDL framework in our college classrooms include the following (Boothe et al., 2018):

• To design for multiple means of engagement:
  • Foster collaboration through the use of group investigations, whole-class and small-group discussions and discussion boards, and cooperative learning activities
  • Optimize more choice and autonomy in topics to explore for an assignment, types of acceptable content sources to cover the topic, materials to use for the assignment, and whether to work alone or in a group
  • Scaffold the learning experience by sharing content in smaller chunks that starts with explicitly teaching the content, guiding students in applying it, and then providing the opportunity for them to independently use it; remain easily accessible to students through email and regular office hours
• To design for multiple means of understanding:
  • Incorporate multiple formats to provide course content, e.g., in-class lectures and discussions, video lectures with closed captions enabled, text-based readings, as well as videos, interactive activities, and even social media; all of this should be included in the learning management system (i.e., Canvas) in a way that is easy for students to navigate. Teach students to use the Immersive Reader feature in Canvas to enhance their experience with the system.
  • Stamp critical information with summaries, color-coded or highlighted key points, graphic organizers, diagrams, and checklists
  • Provide feedback in a timely manner that provides specific examples and suggestions for improving future assignments
• To design for multiple means of action and expression:
  • Clarify assignments by providing handouts, worksheets, or voice overs to guide each assignment, showing grading rubrics and/or models or exemplars of past assignments, allowing time in class to complete work and to receive peer and faculty feedback
  • Create flexible opportunities to demonstrate skills and content knowledge, e.g., assignments that include images, videos, interviews, or spoken means of demonstrating learning, incorporating presentations, podcasts, debates, or plays, giving guidelines for using AI and other digital platforms to support and expand upon learning, providing opportunities to apply critical thinking and to apply learning to real world situations; provide choice in how students will demonstrate their learning
  • Offer formative assessments to reinforce the learning process by helping students gauge their own learning, set goals for themselves, and adjust course as needed, as well as by helping faculty gauge what is working in their instruction and where they may need to review or adjust course as well

In closing, we hope that you will continue to ask yourself the questions posed at the top of the blog and ask you to consider one more: What can I do to know my students and their stories better?

References

Boothe, K. A., Lohmann, M. J., Donnell, K. A., & Hall, D. D. (2018). Applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the college classroom. The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship, 7(3), 1-13.

CAST. (2024). UDL Guidelines. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org

CAST (2018). UDL and the learning brain. Wakefield, MA: Author.

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.