Universal Design For Learning In A Multicultural Classroom

Background information on UDL

Discuss about the Teaching And Learning In Inclusive Settings.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is identified as an educational framework that is primary relied on the research in learning sciences including cognitive neuroscience that can achieve individual learning differences (Ashman, 2015). In this regards, it can be argued that the Universal Design for Learning is very essential for integrating in the diverse classroom. Based on the significance of the UDL system, it is important to understand the implementation of the framework in the context of Australian curriculum. As far as the Australian curriculum is concerned it can be argued that the UDL system is intertwined with the inclusive mechanism that helps to get diverse needs of the students in the classroom (McLeskey et al., 2014). As a matter of fact, this framework is very essential to get a glimpse of the learning process of the students and at the same time helps to figure out the efficiency of the teachers in order to use teaching techniques properly. In this regards, this report is going to discuss a teaching plan for students in a classroom environment. Moreover, the learning outcome and the lesson descriptions are also taken into the discussion to perceive an idea of the possible result of implementing the UDL model. Besides this, connecting the lesson plan with the Universal Design for Learning framework fosters a justification of the exclusiveness and pragmatic expression regarding the lesion plan.

Before going into the detailed analysis of the teaching plan and the cognate discussion it is imperative to get a clear picture of the students, their strengths and the background from where they belong. In this regards, it can be asserted that the growing importance of Universal Design for Learning is essential in this context.

In this regards, the classroom is identified to possess a number of students belong to different culture, ethnicity, nationality and psychological environment. There are 25 students in the class with an age from 12 to 15 who are studied in sixth standard. Most of them are currently the citizens of Australia but have a diaspora. In fact, difference of ethnicities and religion are also associated with this.

Most of the students are belonged to Christianity but there are students from Islam and Buddhism also. Based on this understanding, as a class teacher it should be the principle that the lesson plan must not possess any foul terms that can hurt the students’ religious believes.

The significance of UDL in the Australian curriculum

Moreover, there are students from ethnic minorities as well. As Australia witnesses indigenous inhabitants and shares different cultural identity therefore it is very important to consider the ethnic differences.

Furthermore, there are students who have no previous experience in English language or not so fluent in speaking. Communication gap is considered to be a possible issue regarding the process of teaching and learning. As a result of that inadequacy in understanding will be a great problem for the students.

In this regards, it can also be attributed that there are some psychological differences among students. In other words, every student has an individual style and capability to understand the words of the teacher. Many of them are not so smart or advanced to grasp the meaning of what the teacher asked them. In this regards, using simple words and lucid way of teaching will be effective to influence the students.

For enhancing the communicative English skill it is important for the teacher to set a learning plan for the students. In course of this, the teacher has to keep in mind of the diverse students of the classroom. As a result of that picking up an easy learning plan will be beneficial for the teachers.

Participants	Objectives	Action	Methods	Elements	Time
Students in multicultural classroom	The instrumental function to understand the capability of the students	·         Reading story books and poems ·         Habituate with the words and sentences	·         Basic learning methods. ·         Assistance from the teacher.	·         English story books for children. ·         Easy poems. ·         Dictionary	2 weeks
	Learn and discover the way of speaking	·         Practice the English grammar ·         Revising the previous lesson	·         The regulatory functions. ·         Practice and exercises	·         Good English story books ·         Basic English grammar books	2 weeks
	Express personal feelings and meaning	·         Question answer round with the teacher. ·         A short test in English grammar ·         Revising the previous lessons	·         Personal functioning methods. ·         Inclusive learning	·         Questionnaire ·         English grammar books	1 week
	Interaction session among the students	·         Give a topic ·         A relax environment ·         Proper analysis	·         Interactional learning ·         Audio-visual learning materials	·         Recorder ·         Mobile phone or laptop	3 weeks
	Interaction outside the classroom	·         An open debate. ·         Interaction with parents ·         Communicate with friends	·         Representational function ·         Patience ·         Self-reliance	·         Imagination ·         Confidence ·         Understanding	1 week

 

The learning outcomes of the course are to induce the manner in which the students can undertake effective communication with their peers and thereby undertake ste4opsw to express their emotions as per the learning needs. The different aspects of the change in the curriculum are dependent on the identification of the capabilities of the students and thereby take steps to facilitate them with the same as per the regulations provided by the Australian Curriculum (Faragher  & Van Ommen,  2017).  On the other hand, the identification of the needs of the students to improve their communicative skills has helped the teacher in taking steps to develop projects and interaction based assignments that would help in making the students aware of the manner in which proper communication might be undertaken.

The prime responsibility of the tutor is to manage the diversity in the classroom, as students coming from different cultural backgrounds and differences in languages create a barrier. Thereby the teacher takes steps to introduce different activities to boost the activities of the students to interact with one another. The chief outcome of the unit is that the children will be able to freely communicate with one another and express their emotions in their own language. On the other hand, it will be helping the teacher to introduce the students to the global culture of collaboration to make them into responsible citizen of the nation. The different activities that the teacher must undertake to stimulate the needs of communication among the students will be helping the same to bring in changes in the systems of the operations as per the needs of the students to attain higher education in the future. The enhancement of the communicative abilities of the children will be helping the same to bring in changes in the educational systems. The identification of the communicative needs of the students and the manner in which the issues that are being faced by the students while communicating with one another or the teacher  will be helping the instructor to modify and design the curriculum so that it fits into the needs of the students.

Teaching plan for a diverse classroom

The lesson that will be taught by the teacher to the students is dependent on the manner in which the students can make improvements in their communicative abilities. The teacher has taken steps to make the students take up flags of different colours while they enter to their classroom at the morning. The different flag holders will form groups and thereby the teacher will be conducting a debate program to encourage the participation of all the students. The activity will be helping the teacher to make the students undertake steps to bring in changes in the manner in which they communicate with one another (Commonwealth of Australia., 1992). On the other hand, the enhancement in the communication will be supported by the different measures of teamwork and collaboration, which will be helping the students to understand the values of communication and team functions. The learning activity that will be undertaken by the teacher will be further expanded to the recitation of certain texts from their academic books and thereby making them to explain the different contexts that are described in the book. It will be helping the teacher to induce the proper understanding and the knowledge based on the identification of the needs of the students to make their points clear while communicating with one another. The identification of the communicative needs of the students will be helping the teacher to bring in changes in the approaches of the curriculum to fit in the understanding of the children. 

The learning plan is primarily based on the Universal Development of Learning. In this regards, it can be argued that the UDL framework is an international framework based on the objective of education for all students that is developed primarily for the diverse classroom (Faragher, R & Van Ommen, 2017). In this regards, it can be ascribed that there are three key principals that are followed by the teacher.

The first principle is related to the means of representation. It can be argued that the learners differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information that is presented to them. For an instance, there is a difference in the capability of the students in the respective class. Not all the students possess equal ability to understand the way of teaching (E. Dyment, Hill & Emery, 2015). Besides this, language or cultural difference is considered to be another factor that can put obstruction in the process of learning. As a result of that the teacher has to formulate different ways or approaches in order to make the process of learning more accurate and easy to grasp. As a matter of fact, it can be articulated that the representation is very important for both the students and the teacher. The students will be able to understand the purpose and the means of the teaching process and at the same time, the teachers are able to get the impact of the teaching.

Learning outcomes and lesson descriptions

In this regards, the second principle connotes the means of action and expression. It can be stated that the second principle deals with the physical action of both the teacher and the students. At the same time, it facilitates the way of expression and communication among the students and as a result of that the students are able to execute what they have learned (Creagh, 2016). For an instance, in this classroom, the action of the teacher is linked with the expression of the students. As the teaching is primarily based on conversation, therefore, it can be argued that the way of speech plays an important role in this regards. Hence, the teacher used some simple technique by making conversation with the students in simple sentences. It helps the students to understand the saying of the teacher. Moreover, the practice of using simple sentences helps them to build up their own abilities to speak in that manner and in this course they can possibly able to develop a good communicative English skill.

Moreover, the third principle highlights the multiple means of engagement. In other words, it defines the importance of the learning process (Israel, Ribuffo & Smith, 2014). As a result of that the learning process represents a clear inclination towards motivating the students. In fact, there are a number of factors that are affecting the students. For an example, culture, personal relevance, subjectivity and background knowledge are considered to be imperative in this regards. As a matter of fact, this communicative English learning process also follows the same line and paves the way for the students to get a clear perception of the importance and different approaches of the teaching process. In return, it helps to develop their course of learning as well.

It can be argued that this teaching technique based on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) fosters the notion of collaboration among the students. Learning the same way with the same framework renders a sense of equality among the students (Katz, 2015). However, it does not mean that UDL reduces the scope of possible competitiveness. Rather it can be attributed that it formulates a healthy competition among the students so that they can be able to develop their learning with the use of UDL.

Team bonding is considered to be another important factor that can be caused by using the UDL framework in the learning procedure (Creagh, 2016). As the system reflects the sense of equality and integration therefore, despite having diversity in the classroom the students are inspired by the manifestation of equality provided by UDL.

Managing diversity in the classroom

It cannot be overestimated by stating that the UDL system improvises the communication in a classroom environment. In fact, in the communicative language learning framework it can be considered as an important factor that renders a good understanding among the students (Hammond, 2014). Moreover, due to the diverse nature of the classroom it is beneficial for the student to communicating with each other and creates some sort of bonding which in return beneficial for their learning process.

Conclusion

It can be argued that the Universal Design for Learning is considered to be an effective tool for maintaining an international and diverse classroom environment. In this regards, the teacher has to keep in mind about the key principles of the UDL system. While connecting with the Australian curriculum for school, the Universal Design for Learning is seemed to be more effective and practical in the context of the Australian curriculum framework. Therefore, it can be concluded that in the global scenario and with the change in the nature of schools it is important to choose the Universal Design for Learning as a key factor for learning. In this regards, the report is rightly opined the effectiveness and pragmatic approach of UDL in Australian framework that can also be implemented in different countries as well.

References

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