Unlearning: Changing Your Beliefs and Your Classroom with UDL

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) suggests exciting ways to design and deliver engaging, rigorous learning experiences-as a growing international movement of UDL practitioners can attest. However, implementing UDL also requires us to unlearn many beliefs, assumptions, and teaching practices that no longer work.

In this lively and fun book, UDL experts Allison Posey and Katie Novak describe colleagues who have implemented UDL and experienced exponential success: increased graduation rates, an increase in the number of students taking AP exams, and decreased special education referrals and out-of-school suspensions. 

However, they have also found that sometimes, even when teachers learn about UDL and believe in its power to transform their teaching and learning environments, many still do not change. They don't believe this is because educators are unwilling to make changes, but perhaps because they may not think there is a strong reason to change, or perhaps they do not know the first steps to take. 

The authors have wrestled with this dilemma for years, trying many different approaches to teach and model UDL. They have come to understand that for all the research, brain science, and best practices that are behind UDL as a way to reach all students without differentiating learning at every turn, there is an elephant in the room. Most teachers - and they include themselves in this group - have a hard time integrating new learning. 

Why is changing what we do so hard? Posey and Novak posit that, to change how we think about teaching, how to manage classrooms, and how to develop curriculum, we must unlearn. In a profession that spends so much time thinking about learning, the process of unlearning is what needs to happen before real change can happen. 

Wait, what? The unlearning process has been such a transformative experience for Posey and Novak that they want to invite fellow educators on this journey to design learning experiences that not only are accessible for students but that challenge them to become more autonomous and self-directed in their learning. 

They have seen student agency increase and engagement skyrocket when UDL is implemented. They have observed teachers transformed by UDL who celebrated their learning journeys along the way. But this isn't just a book about UDL. It is a book that recognizes the fact that we aren't meeting the needs of all students and we know that we can.

The process of unlearning as part of the learning process has been well documented. What is unique about this book is that the authors support the process of unlearning using UDL. UDL is a tool that guides the design of learning environments to support the anticipated variability of students, to help educators be goal-directed and to prioritize engagement, and to ensure that every individual knows how to be an expert learner who is motivated, knowledgeable, and strategic. 

Posey and Novak developed The Unlearning Cycle to support educators seeking to implement UDL in their practice. It includes the following essential elements, though these do not necessarily occur in a linear progression:

1) Understand variability

2) Know your goals

3) Transform tried-and-true practices

4) Prioritize engagement

5) Scaffold expert learning

This book is for teachers and the professionals who support them. It is for educators who are interested in UDL but have not been able to transform practice to increase the outcomes of all learners. As an educator, you can go through the process individual, with a team in a professional learning community, or as a school or district. 

Allison Posey (@AllisonAPosey) is a curriculum and design specialist at CAST, a non-profit in Wakefield, MA, where she collaborates with educators from across the U.S. and internationally to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL). She works in a wide range of settings, from kindergarten to higher education institutions to informal learning environments - with the ultimate goal that learning is intentionally designed to meet the needs of every individual in equitable, inclusive ways. Prior to her work at CAST, she taught science in high school and community college, earned a certificate in art from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and a degree in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Katie Novak, EdD, is an internationally renowned education consultant, author, graduate instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, and a former Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Massachusetts. Katie has more than 19 years of experience in teaching and administration, an earned doctorate in curriculum and teaching, and more than ten published books..Dr. Novak is the author of Revised and Expanded Edition: UDL Now! A Teacher's Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today's Classrooms, which has sold over 40,000 copies worldwide. Two of her other publications, of which she is a co-author, have been endorsed by leading professors in the field of education and state departments of education. UDL in the Cloud was endorsed by the Executive Director of The Initiative on Learning and Teaching at MIT while Mitchell Chester, the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), endorsed Universally Designed Leadership. Innovate Inside the Box has landed as #1 on Amazon's Best Seller's List for Education.Novak's work in UDL has impacted educators worldwide as her contributions and collaborations have built upon the foundation for an educational framework that is critical for student success. Partnering with her for professional development will ensure an engaging, motivating experience that will improve the practice of all educators in attendance. Connect @katienovakudl.