Universally Designed Personalized Learning: Is It a Paradox in (Special) Education?

• In Event: 28.089 - MTCC Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 28.089-10 - Varied Perspectives on Student Learning: Student Learning Communities and Personalized, Active, and Interdisciplinary Learning

Abstract

This paper offers a critical analysis of the problematic practice of delivering standardized instruction to students with diverse learning needs. Underlying the analysis is a need for educational researchers to reconceptualize the wicked problem with a lens of creating personalized learning (PL) environments for diverse learners. To contextualize the alternate perspective, the paper provides theoretical and methodological underpinnings of PL by introducing universal design for learning (UDL) as its design framework. This theoretical analysis aims to inform policy and research in system-wide change in learning environments so as to address ineffective instruction for all learners.

Authors

• James D. Basham, The University of Kansas

• Ling Zhang, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill