Universal Design for Teaching Science

From the Marshall Memo #443

In this Teaching Exceptional Children article, Lucinda Spaulding (Liberty University VA) and Jenny Sue Flannagan (Regent University VA) embrace the concept of universal design. “[B]est practices for instructing students with special needs are also very effective with general-education students,” they say. “Conversely, best practices for general-education students are effective with students with special needs… ALL students can benefit from the same tool chest of instructional methods and strategies…” When they were teachers, Spaulding and Flannagan came up with the acronym DIS₂ECT to capture the kind of science teaching they used to reach all students: Design, Individualization, Scaffolding, Strategies, Experiential learning, Cooperative learning, and Teacher teamwork:

• Design – Using backwards design, they (a) got to know their learners (prior knowledge, learning style, hobbies and interests, academic strengths and weaknesses, learning disabilities); (b) identified curriculum priorities for the unit (knowledge, skills, and links to the big ideas of science); (c) designed essential questions that led to their quizzes, tests, performance tasks, and projects; and (d) created daily lesson plans. 

• Individualization – This starts by ascertaining and planning for predictable difficulties students would have with the material – for example, not being able to use inductive and deductive thinking skills, their reading levels compared to the textual material they’ll have to read, independent study skills, and areas where they’ll need practice, repetition, feedback, and reinforcement. 

• Scaffolding – “Scaffolds can be viewed as bridges,” say Spaulding and Flannagan. “Each student comes to class with a certain level of knowledge and understanding on a topic, and each may have certain obstacles to overcome in order to learn new concepts… By providing just the right level of support, students can move from their current understanding to higher levels of understanding.” For example, some students would be unable to design their own science experiment at first, but by working with a peer or small group, they will gain confidence, conceptual understanding, and skills, and with repetition and reinforcement, reach the point where they can do it on their own. Providing books at students’ reading levels is another vital kind of scaffolding. Graphic organizers, text organizers, and semantic maps can help students understand the relationship between concepts (e.g., organisms and their habitats) as well as scientific laws (force and motion). 

• Strategies – This involves explicitly teaching approaches to solving problems and organizing information – self-monitoring, self-regulation, self-questioning (Does this make sense?), summarizing, study skills, mnemonics, and repeated reading. 

• Experiential learning – The key to getting all students to learn science, say Spaulding and Flannagan, is to engage them in discovery and exploration. Don’t start with content, they advise, start with experiences. For example, to teach about how matter can change chemically, have students write and report their observations of peroxide and yeast being mixed in a bottle. 

• Cooperative learning – Having students collaborate as they do experiments and present their observations builds social skills, self-confidence, and positive attitudes about the classroom as well as academic understanding.

• Teacher teamwork – That is, the collaboration of the regular-education and special-education teacher. Ideally, say Spaulding and Flannagan, both teachers are skilled instructors, work well together, are excited about teaching science, have time for co-planning (the principal is key here), use good curriculum materials, and adapt instruction to meet children’s individual needs. A key decision during planning time is when to use team teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching (one teacher leads an activity or investigation, the other follows up by teaching the concepts and vocabulary), and learning station teaching. 

“DIS₂ECT: A Framework for Effective Inclusive Science Instruction” by Lucinda Spaulding and Jenny Sue Flannagan in Teaching Exceptional Children, July/August 2012 (Vol. 44, #6, p. 6-14); http://bit.ly/MP4qmr; Spaulding can be reached at lsspaulding@liberty.edu