Universal Design for Learning As It Applies to Early Childhood Special Essay

Universal Design for Learning As It Applies to Early Childhood Special Education - Essay Example Universal design for learning does not offer single solution however, it is a combination of various approaches designed to meet the requirements of children with different kinds of disabilities. One of the major challenges that the universal design for learning faces is the concept of inclusion. Inclusion refers to innovative forms of teaching methods in a regular classroom setup that caters to the educational requirements of the children with disabilities. This method does not involve the movement of children in a set up that offers these services rather it brings these innovative methods of teaching in a regular classroom set up. This new form of teaching ensures that all children attain education equally and understand the contents of the syllabus more effectively. There is lot of controversy about inclusion of universal design for learning in a regular classroom setup. Some consider that it is not a good practice to enforce inclusion on all children while others consider it most appropriate since it meets the requirements of all children irrespective of their disabilities. The educational institutions are recognizing the need for identifying innovative methods of education service delivery. These new techniques of teaching practices will help in imparting equal opportunity of education for the disabled children. ... Moreover, it is not ethical to enforce a certain kind of teaching to students in order to cater the needs of certain segment of students. Since new challenges emerge everyday for the teacher in teaching the disabled children, there has to be reforms made in the field of education. There are both positive and negative impacts of inclusion of the universal design for learning on the current education system. Hence, a holistic understanding of this issue is required in providing effective education to both the categories of children. The proposed study will investigate the students and teachers concepts and beliefs about universal design for learning and the data will be generated using qualitative research method. Artifacts, simple observation and interviews will be the main strategies utilized to generate data. The data generated will be analyzed on an ongoing basis so that new ideas emerge from the data accumulated. This study will be of utmost importance to the children with disabilities and without it. It will also be relevant to the special educators and general teachers. Literary review According to Doty, a strong supporter of Universal design for learning recommends that it should be implemented for all children in a classroom. All the children have different ways of learning. Universal design for learning will provide a broader opportunity of learning to children with disabilities and without it. [Jaehnert, O Malley and Robinson, n. d]. The concept of educational equality can only be attained from a regular classroom setup by introducing universal method of learning. There are teachers who are implementing this technique of teaching