My Teaching Lab. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) – what are we already doing without even realising it?
There's been a lot of talk lately about the educational approach known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Whenever I hear about it, I can't help thinking that I've heard this tune somewhere before. After all, many of the ideas behind UDL are not entirely new.
Universal design, personalisation, support for students with special educational needs and neurodivergent learners, inclusion, WCAG accessibility standards, and knowledge about the neurobiological aspects of learning — all these concepts share a common foundation and point us in a similar direction.
Did you know that you're probably already applying many UDL principles in your teaching, even if you don't call them that?
How did it all begin?
UDL has its roots in the universal design movement, which emerged in architecture in the 1980s. However, it soon became clear that the underlying principles had much broader applications.
A classic example is the ramp at the entrance to a building. Originally designed with wheelchair users in mind, ramps are now also used by parents with pushchairs, older people, and delivery workers.
If we were to sum up this approach to education in a single sentence, we could say that it involves designing learning materials and experiences in ways that accommodate the needs of as many learners as possible.
At the same time, we shouldn't confuse this with creating a one-size-fits-all solution. People are incredibly diverse, and it's difficult to design something that meets the full spectrum of their needs. Besides, few of us have the resources to provide an endless variety of options.
What we can do, however, is design learning experiences from the outset with a broader range of learners in mind. And in education, many teachers have been doing exactly that for years.
The three main principles of UDL
In practice, UDL is built around three core principles [1].
The first is engagement, which addresses the question of why someone wants to learn and what motivates them to participate. Some learners are driven by curiosity, others by a sense of purpose, relationships, or the challenge itself. For us as teachers, finding ways to engage everyone can sometimes be quite a challenge.
The second is representation, or how we present information. Some learners may find a story or written explanation easier to follow, while others benefit from a video, diagram, or real-life example. A single format rarely works equally well for everyone.
The third is action and expression, which concerns how learners can demonstrate their understanding and what they have learned. Not everyone performs at their best in a test or written assignment. Sometimes a presentation, a project, or another form of expression may be more appropriate. By providing different options, we give more learners a chance to succeed in ways that suit their needs and abilities.
First: Engagement
Attention, emotions, and storytelling
Learning begins when something captures our attention. In a world full of constant distractions, this is no easy task. That's why teachers need to think carefully about how they attract and sustain learners' attention.
This is why educators open classes with questions, introduce surprising elements, vary the pace, and connect new topics to students' experiences.
They often start with an example rather than a definition, introduce short moments of reflection, revisit key ideas, or deliberately leave a question unanswered to stimulate thinking.
All these strategies can help maintain concentration and give meaning to what comes next.
At the same time, attention is constantly shifting and needs to be sustained. Information associated with emotions may be processed more deeply and have a greater chance of being retained in long-term memory. Emotions also influence how we direct our attention, select information, and maintain motivation to continue learning.
This is one reason teachers tell stories and use storytelling in their teaching.
A well-designed narrative has an opening, tension, a problem, and a resolution. This structure reflects how our minds organise and make sense of information.
Teachers also ask questions that create cognitive tension and tap into our natural desire to find answers — to close a loop that has been left open.
Scaffolding: building support for new skills
Teachers also frequently use what educational theory describes as scaffolding [2] and the zone of proximal development [3], a concept associated with psychologist Lev Vygotsky.
Scaffolding means providing learners with support that enables them to complete a task they would not yet be able to perform independently.
This support is temporary and gradually withdrawn as learners develop their skills and become more independent.
It is closely related to the zone of proximal development — the space between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with appropriate support.
And this is where an important connection with engagement emerges: learners are more likely to engage when a task is challenging but still achievable.
Designing an activity that strikes this balance is far from easy.
In practice, we can provide a clear example, demonstrate how to complete a task step by step, and then gradually withdraw support so that learners can take responsibility for their own work.
Many teachers use these strategies every day without necessarily giving them a theoretical label. They break tasks into stages, provide examples, offer initial guidance, and gradually increase the level of difficulty.
Second: Representation
Teaching in ways that reflect how people learn
UDL encourages us to design learning materials with an understanding of how human learning works.
Research on learning tells us that working memory has a very limited capacity and that cognitive overload [4] can occur much more quickly than we might expect.
Prior knowledge [5] also plays a crucial role, influencing whether new information can be understood and integrated into existing cognitive structures.
This is why teachers, often intuitively, use approaches that reflect these mechanisms.
In educational literature, these include information hierarchy, content segmentation, pacing, and contrast in presentation.
Accessibility: Open Sesame!
UDL also places great emphasis on accessibility. But what exactly does accessibility mean in this context?
It means giving learners a genuine opportunity to access and process information.
A learner needs to understand the language we're using, recognise the structure of the material, identify what's most important, connect new ideas, and have enough space to pause and think.
When any of these elements is missing, our minds can close up like the gates of the legendary cave in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
Universally designed educational content therefore offers different levels, formats, and pathways through which learners can reach an understanding of the essential ideas.
This is why teachers use strategies such as layering information and providing multiple forms of representation.
They explain, demonstrate, draw, offer examples, and return to the basics when necessary.
They understand that some learners need an accessible starting point, while others are ready to explore a topic in greater depth. And they adapt flexibly to what happens in the classroom or lecture hall.
Language: the gatekeeper of knowledge
One of the most important, yet often underestimated, aspects of UDL is language.
Why?
Because language often determines whether learners can access knowledge at all.
If students don't understand what they're reading or hearing, it doesn't matter how valuable the content is. It simply has little chance of reaching them.
Language can support learning, but it can also become a powerful barrier.
Overly complex sentences, excessive specialist terminology, unexplained concepts, and unclear structure increase cognitive load and make understanding more difficult.
This is why UDL places such importance on simplifying the way information is presented — without oversimplifying the knowledge itself.
It means explaining concepts, providing examples, and using different ways to communicate information.
Many teachers put these principles into practice every single day.
Third: Action and Expression
Finding your own way
In learning, the opportunity to act and demonstrate what we know is just as important as the learning process itself.
Yet we often assess knowledge in only one way: through a test, a written assignment, or an oral examination.
But learners differ not only in how they learn, but also in how they can express what they know.
This is why UDL encourages us to create different opportunities for learners to demonstrate the outcomes of their work. Sometimes we need different pathways that lead to the same learning objective.
Many teachers already recognise this and offer students a choice.
They propose different project tasks, allow learners to explain concepts in their own words, ask them to create examples, or encourage them to apply knowledge in a specific situation.
The dark side of UDL
It's worth remembering, however, that UDL is not without its limitations. A superficial approach to implementing it can create significant problems.
One challenge is too much choice.
Offering too many options can overwhelm learners and make decision-making more difficult.
At the other extreme, we risk introducing token flexibility — something that sounds good in theory but doesn't actually give learners any meaningful opportunity to make their own decisions.
UDL can also be misinterpreted as a requirement to prepare countless versions of every learning resource, potentially creating an unsustainable workload for teachers.
Another risk is the dilution of academic standards if different learning pathways are not clearly aligned with the intended learning objectives.
Perhaps the greatest danger, however, is treating UDL as merely a collection of teaching techniques, without understanding the cognitive mechanisms that underpin them.
An idea worth developing
What I find particularly interesting is that UDL is, to a large extent, an approach grounded in what we know about how human beings naturally learn.
We could also say that one of its central aims is to organise information, eliminate unnecessary noise, build logical structures, and combine different forms of communication.
At the same time, designing flexible learning pathways means creating conditions in which more people have a genuine opportunity to succeed.
It's a difficult challenge, but certainly one worth taking on.
And here's perhaps the most important point of all: for many teachers, UDL is not a new approach at all. It's simply a name for practices they've been successfully using in their classrooms for years.
10 simple ways to make your teaching more aligned with UDL principles
1. Give learning a purpose and set priorities
At the beginning of a class, clearly explain what matters most and why it matters. This helps direct learners' attention and gives meaning to the content.
2. Break content into manageable stages
Instead of presenting everything at once, divide the material into shorter sections and introduce moments to pause. Processing less information at a time gives learners a better chance of understanding it.
3. Explain things in different ways
Don't rely on a single form of communication. Combine storytelling with demonstrations, and support abstract concepts with examples and diagrams.
4. Simplify your language (without simplifying the knowledge)
Before moving on, take a moment to explain key concepts in a simple sentence or through an example rather than assuming everyone already understands them.
If you can say something more clearly and concisely, do so. Introduce more complex terminology once learners have a point of reference.
5. Ask questions
Replace some of your slides with questions. A well-chosen question stimulates thinking and encourages learners to engage actively with the material.
6. Create space for reflection
Build in short pauses for writing down thoughts, moments of silence, or discussion. Learning requires time to process information.
7. Connect new ideas to what learners already know
Link new content to learners' existing knowledge. Build cognitive bridges that make new concepts easier to understand and remember.
8. Show an example before assigning a task
Before asking learners to complete an activity, provide a model or a short demonstration so they understand what is expected of them.
9. Offer choices (even small ones)
Introduce opportunities for choice, such as the format of a response, the example students work with, or the order in which they complete tasks.
Even small choices can strengthen learners' sense of control and engagement.
10. End with an open loop
Finish the session with a question, a problem, or a little cognitive tension that stays with learners and encourages them to keep thinking long after the class has ended.
Article by Alina Guzik
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Sources
[1] CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Wakefield, MA: Author.
[2] Meyer, A., Rose, D. H., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. CAST Professional Publishing.
[3] Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.
[4] Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press.
[5] Ausubel, D. P. (2000). The acquisition and retention of knowledge: A cognitive view. Springer.
