We are NOT STUPID—the Reflection of Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

The story started…

In a computer class, the teacher taught us to make a website, and this assignment had a final critique. First, the teacher demonstrated how to design the webpage, then she let us do this step by ourselves. However, every classmate finished making the webpage except me because I had some technical issues. Next, I was unable to reach the next step which the teacher started talking about it. Since then, I felt awkward in the computer class and didn’t attend the critique.

Studying is our own business

Since I have learnt the UDL (Universal Design for Learning), I discover the weakest part of Chinese teaching from the UDL is Action & Expression. Teachers in China would show PowerPoint that involves various images and texts in class. They would describe the content per slide as well. However, students wouldn’t have another chance to look back at the PowerPoint one more time. This teaching strategy might test each student’s learning ability, but a few students still need more than one time to understand the knowledge, so students who would not make sense of this teaching would be defined as “stupid” students.

Possible ways to relieve this situation

There are two ways to relieve this situation: visual and physical. Both ways must be accessible and not conflict with each other. Showing students pre-recorded videos is the best way to help students refresh their knowledge visually. Pre-recorded videos are suitable for almost all subjects such as Mathematics, Chinese, and Physics. However, these videos should contain detailed contents and prevent funny components. Students already know the overview of this knowledge, so their present goal is to reinforce this knowledge. For example, if a student has trouble with composing an English sentence. A video that involves detailed steps on how to compose a perfect English sentence is suitable for this student.

Next is the physical part, students can reinforce their knowledge by doing more exercise after watching the instructional video. Students can do exercises both on paper and online. According to the learning situation in China, doing exercises online is the best method for students. Online tests and online exercises produce less pressure from classmates than paper exercises. Besides, online exercises have more privacy than paper exercises. My classmates used to mark math exercises with each other according to my experience. I was thinking everyone’s ability would be exposed, which I felt very uncomfortable.