Using UDL to Design Professional Development 

 

Best practices for teaching and learning are best practices for learners of all ages- including students and teachers; given this, as instructional leaders it is worth exploring how to model these practices in our design of Professional Development (PD). One framework that you may consider for both teachers and students is that provided by Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In her book UDL NOW! Katie Novak offers up Anti-Guidelines for Engagement, using PD as a lens for analyzing this in practice. Novak also provides options for: self-regulation, sustaining effort and persistence, and recruiting interest. I would like to take Novak’s table one step further and provide specific strategies for what these options can look like over the course of a year, for a school implementing Project Based Learning (PBL). 

Novak (2016) also provides practical discussion questions for PLC’s to explore, one of which I love and encourage school leaders looking to implement PBL consider:

With your colleagues, create a PD wish list by answering the following questions: What would PD nirvana look like? How would the PD provider build engagement with all learners? (p.39)