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Supporting Teacher Demoralization through the UDL Framework

Posted on: Feb ten, 2022

By Mandy Froehlich and Katie Novak

Mandy Froehlich and Katie Novak, co-editor of Transforming Higher Pedagogy Through Universal Design for Learning , outline steps to overcoming teacher demoralization

Every learner deserves equitable admission to inclusive learning environments, opportunities to learn at high levels, and conditions that allow them to find purpose and joy in their learning. This is true for students and educators alike.

Given the incredible variability of the students we serve, i-size-fits-all learning approaches autumn short of meeting the needs of our students, but they also miss the mark as our schools seek to support educators in honing the art and the science of instruction. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework based on decades of research that provides a roadmap for designing learning focused on "firm goals, flexible means," which is necessary to meliorate student outcomes and elevate and celebrate educators. Because right now, educators are struggling.

'For demoralization, the healing technique is to lean into passions in education, reclaim your identity, and rediscover your purpose despite very existent challenges'

Burnout is a unremarkably understood disease affecting educators from early childhood to higher teaching. However, a less talked almost upshot for educators is a concept called demoralization. Demoralization impacts educators considering, unlike other professions, teachers often come into education with a moral obligation to make a difference in the world. Their impact and desire to improve a learner'southward life is their driver, and when that moral obligation is challenged through politics, the community, pandemics, or fifty-fifty a lack of professional learning that values teachers as learners, they tin become demoralized. This status can make educators question their efficacy and grapple with whether they positively affect learners. At the root of demoralization is something like an identity crunch. A common question asked by educators worldwide is, Given these circumstances, how can I mayhap make a difference?

The typical recommendation for people feeling burnout is to pull back and fix boundaries around the corporeality of work they do. For example, many people set goals to go out work at a specific time or commit to not bringing piece of work home on the weekends. Correct at present, that is of import merely not sufficient. For demoralization, the healing technique is to lean into passions in education, reclaim your identity, and rediscover your purpose despite very real challenges. Sometimes, this means action research, optimizing student voice, and/or trying something new. In terms of demoralization, it is redefining what "making a divergence" means to yous, and creating circumstances that allow you to brand a difference and appreciate the impact of those differences.

Universal Pattern for Learning (UDL) is a framework for approaching planning by eliminating barriers that prevent students from realizing success. The framework can also help educators identify practices that are leading to burnout and demoralization so they can minimize them through design. By co-creating options with students, and optimizing learner voice, UDL tin help teachers detect residue, purpose, and brand a difference in the lives of the learners they serve.

'We need to normalize conversations about barriers that prevent learning'

Outset, requite anybody permission to feel. Allow students know that we are in stressful times, and share how you lot are struggling. Nosotros need to normalize conversations well-nigh barriers that prevent learning and work to eliminate them, only teachers don't have to do this lonely.

Ask students to draw their ideal learning surround. Some students adopt placidity, while others will prefer music or chatting. Some students work well in minor groups, whereas others thrive when they can work independently. Later on reflecting, inquire the students for suggestions virtually how the classroom, whether in person or online, tin support multiple formats and consider when it'southward appropriate to provide these options. For example, during explicit teaching, students could have options to sit down or stand. Instead of "turn and talk," students tin can cull to conversation, write Cornell notes, or have Sketchnotes. When working on practice problems, students can listen to their earbuds, conversation quietly, or tin sit in a corner of the room dubbed every bit "sensory sensitive." When students have the options and choices they demand to thrive and manage their learning, disruptive behaviors are minimized, which helps teachers to work with small groups and provide feedback to learners. An important consideration, as you brand changes to practise, is to inquire learners for the impact of the pathways on their learning.

Ask questions like:

• What barriers are you facing that foreclose you lot from doing your best?
• How can we work together to eliminate those barriers through pattern?

Also, consistently reflect on the impact of changes.

• How practise the options we co-created permit you to be more successful?
• What is ane boosted pathway that may permit you to exist more than successful? Employ the sentence stalk, "It would be groovy if…"

When we work with our learners to identify and eliminate barriers, it helps to highlight our impact and the moral imperative of our work. As educators, nosotros accept the power and the privilege to interact with learners to modify the learning environs and their outcomes. Certainly, not all barriers are within our control, but many, including the classroom climate we create, can be designed with our learners, as opposed to for them. This builds relationships among learners and instructors and reduces fatigue, demoralization, and the feeling that, despite the fact we're working so difficult, it doesn't brand a difference.

When students have the opportunity to co-create, co-plan, and provide feedback on their learning, teacher workload is shared, options and choices are relevant, accurate, and meaningful, and teachers have more time to create relationships, and reflect on authentic learning with their students. Building a teacher identity around UDL and experiencing the divergence that information technology can brand in teaching and learning tin exist 1 fashion to build back teacher morale and reduce burnout. Our learners are capable of sharing the cognitive load of instructional design when we empower them and drag their voices.

Katie Novak, Ed.D., is an internationally renowned education consultant, author, graduate teacher at the University of Pennsylvania, and a former Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Massachusetts. With 19 years of experience in education and administration, an earned doctorate in curriculum and teaching, and ten published books, Katie designs and presents workshops both nationally and internationally focusing on the implementation of inclusive practices, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), multi-tiered systems of support, and universally designed leadership. Novak'due south work has impacted educators worldwide equally her contributions and collaborations have congenital upon the foundation for an educational framework that is critical for student success.

Mandy Froehlich is an educator, former instructional coach and Managing director of Innovation and Engineering who passionately encourages educators to create innovative change in their classrooms. Her involvement lies in reinvigorating and re-engaging teachers back into their profession, as well as what'southward needed to back up teachers in their pursuit of innovative and divergent thinking and educational activity. Mandy consults internationally with school districts and post-secondary institutions in the effective utilise of technology to support peachy didactics, mental health support for educators, and how to create organizational change. Froehlich's work as a graduate instructor allows her to positively impact the next generation of instructional leaders. Her books on mental health awareness and educator appointment can be constitute on her website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and EduMatch Publishing.

Transforming Higher Educational activity Through Universal Design for Learning

Providing insight into the background, theory and practical applications of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Transforming Higher Education through Universal Design for Learning: An International Perspective examines and shares best exercise in UDL implementation worldwide to provide strategies for strengthening pupil accessibility, engagement and learning outcomes through the development of flexible learning environments.

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Source: https://www.routledge.com/blog/article/supporting-teacher-demoralization-through-the-udl-framework

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