What is a Problem of Practice?

We've all got problems. Some big and some little. Some appropriate for our UDL News blog and some probably not appropriate. 

Universal Design for Learning is a helpful way to design solutions to problems. This year our pilot teams will be using the design lens of UDL to solve everyday problems team members experience when teaching concepts and when students are in educational environments. We need to reshape our thinking when we experience educational problems. Rather then avoiding difficulty (hard concepts, new ideas, failed prototypes, challenging students, and challenging situations), we need to see those experiences as opportunities to learn and grow. Educators are some of the greatest problem solvers of all, working to solve the problems of ignorance, misinformation, and lost opportunities for students to achieve. UDL pilot teams this year will select one academic problem and one environmental problem to use Universal Design for Learning to solve. These problems are meant to be real lift situations and experiences. We really want these to be problems that team members were going to have to find solutions for whether they were in the UDL pilot or not. 

One reason for UDL"s propelling instructional designer's to success in solving challenging problems is UDL starts with a user focus. Because we have to start with the belief that all humans have an affective filter that assigns meaning to events and situations they experience, Universal Designers have to start with thinking of solutions that are relevant to their end users. We start with lessons that put our selves in the shoes of our students. We think about their experiences, cares, interests, and fears. And when brainstorming instructional ideas as possible avenues to student success, we then are continually going back to our student perspective to design whether that idea will work and to what degree it will work. 

Universal Design for Learning also makes for a safe place to come up with new ideas and solution. We do not have to be weighed down by the fear of having the very best representation or the best assessment because we are assuming there are no perfect "one size fits all" solutions to our students learning, environmental, and/or behavioral needs. We are starting with the belief that there will be multiple pathways to a solution. 

This year in Sanger we will be solving so many problems. Our students will be supported in so many fantastic ways. Universal Design for Learning will help us shape our conversations and get us focused on the real "stories" our students are living, but it isn't where the solutions will come from, those come from us, our teams, and our kiddos. I can't wait!

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