Explicit Instruction and UDL Teaching Process

Implications for Access to the General Curriculum

“Declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge are necessary ingredients for strategic behavior. Students can learn about these features of reading through direct instruction as well as by practice. Part of a teacher’s job is to explicate strategies for reading so that students will perceive them as useful and sensible” (Paris, l986).

Programs using explicit instruction have been researched extensively across classrooms by grade (pre-school through adult) and by ability (special and general education settings) since the mid-1960s. General education classrooms in these studies were most often typical settings, with diverse students, including students at-risk for academic failure, economically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities. Additionally, applications of explicit instruction incorporate the range of school content areas including reading (decoding and comprehension), mathematics, language arts, history/social studies, science, health, art, and music education.

One of the most visible implementations of direct instruction in public schools is Wesley Elementary in Houston, TX. When the school began implementation of instruction using direct instruction, fifth grade students were almost two years below grade level. After four years of implementation, the third, fourth, and fifth grade students were performing 1 to 1.5 years above grade level. All students scored above the 80th percentile in both reading and mathematics on the district evaluation. Wesley School continues these effective practices school-wide and continues to have exemplary scores on district, state, and national assessments.

It has been thought that teaching using explicit instruction is most beneficial for low-performing students and students in special education. However, the results from extensive research repeatedly indicate that all students benefit from well-designed and explicitly taught skills.

Explicit Instruction and the Three Universal Design for Learning Principles

“Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented—and has been shown to promote achievement for all students” (Archer & Hughes, 2014). There are many compatible aspects of explicit instruction practices and the principles of universal design for learning. This section addresses the foundational principles of universal design for learning—engagement, action and expression, and representation—in order to address the ways in which explicit instruction is compatible with and complementary to UDL principles.

Certain instructional techniques have been found to be very effective in supporting skills learning; as noted above, explicit instruction, like UDL, has a central focus on the learner and meeting the needs of all learners in an instructional episode.

Affective Networks

Differentiated instruction and UDL share a very important point of convergence: recognition of the importance of engaging learners in instructional tasks. The UDL guidelines call for motivating and sustaining learner engagement through flexible instruction, an objective that differentiated instruction supports very effectively. Explicit instruction includes learner engagement at its core in instructional delivery with the implication that to be engaged the design of instruction must be of interest and gain and maintain engagement throughout the learning episode.

Explicit instruction focuses directly on student affect in the component delivery area. Teaching skills essential to effective explicit instruction include appropriate pacing and thinking time (the rate of instructional task delivery paired with appropriate time to process), student involvement (assuring all students have the opportunity to respond in an appropriate manner for that individual), and feedback at the group and individual level that is instructional and immediate.

Strategic Networks

The UDL principle provide multiple means of action and expression recommends that educators offer multiple, flexible options for physical action, expression, and communication and executive functions. Students have different strengths and weaknesses in these areas. Instructional design and delivery based on explicit instructional strategies can be used to instruct and support students to act skillfully and develop until they are using strategies effectively in their learning.

Recognition networks

The UDL principle that focuses on representation and the importance of providing multiple, flexible methods of presentation when teaching indicates that no single teaching methodology for representing information will be satisfactory for every learner. Explicit instruction too recognizes the importance of individual needs and providing instruction that is appropriate and flexible to meet individual learner needs. The pedagogical elements for explicit instruction incorporate components for design and delivery of instruction that can help teachers to support critical elements of recognition learning in a flexible way and promote every student’s success.

When analyzing the identifying components of explicit instruction, its design aspects currently do not directly address issues of representation. However, the second component area of instruction supports the UDL principle provide multiple means of representation—specifically, the clarification and supports for understanding language and symbols. Designers and teachers implementing explicit instruction strategies support the understanding of symbols and language used in an instructional episode by assuring, in advance of use, that students have a clear understanding and are provided with opportunities for practice, also with alternative media, to clarify meaning.

The explicit instruction components of design activating background knowledge also relate directly to the representation principle of UDL. Providing and activating background knowledge during instruction is fundamental to the structure of both UDL and explicit instruction. By activating background knowledge, the learner has a better framework from which to relate new information and knowledge during the instructional episode, thus increasing the likelihood of building that skill or element of knowledge into their repertoire.

Curriculum planning and delivery

Another important step in implementation of UDL in instruction is curriculum planning and delivery. To begin, we recommend that teachers have a basic understanding of UDL and a commitment to make the curriculum and learning accessible for all learners. While keeping in mind the three principles of UDL, based on the three recognition, strategic, and affective networks, we have found the following process useful in designing lessons. The process includes four steps based upon the principles and concepts of UDL, proven professional development strategies, and effective teaching practices:

(a) set goals,
(b) analyze status,
(c) apply UDL, and
(d) teach the UDL lesson.

Title: UDL Lesson Design Process - Description: Set Goals: Establish Content to Align to standards; Analyze Status: Identify methods, materials, and assessment, Identify barriers; Apply UDL: Identify UDL materials and methods, Write UDL plan, Collect and organize materials; Teach UDL Lesson: Teach lesson, Evaluate success, Revise Lesson/Unit.

In the set goals stage of curriculum planning, we recommend that teachers establish the context for instruction. Context is usually driven by or based on state standards, followed by the design of goals for the instructional episode. We recommend that all teachers closely evaluate these to assure alignment and to assure that the means for attaining the goals are separated from the goals and standards.

Next, when designing a UDL lesson, teachers should analyze the current status of the instructional episode.

There are a number of resources and tools available from CAST to analyze, build, and share resources, lessons, and collections in UDL Exchange to support instruction guided by UDL principles.

The third recommended step of the planning process is to apply UDL to the lesson or unit. This includes the goals, methods, assessments, and materials used to implement the lesson. Create a UDL lesson plan grounded in the learning goals, classroom profile, methods and assessment, and materials and tools. Then, collect and organize materials that support the UDL lesson.

In the final step,

In this way, instructors can engage more students and help all students progress. When teaching and evaluating students work, also evaluate and revise the lesson or unit to assure student access and success. You may obtain additional information about designing UDL methods, assessments, and materials in Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice, Chapter 6.

Conclusion

As more and more teachers begin to explore UDL in their classrooms, they will begin to augment books and lectures with new technologies. UDL is clearly a framework that can support the implementation of explicit instruction. UDL can help teachers succeed at implementing instruction and developing curricula that make information and learning more accessible. Although all teachers will undoubtedly encounter challenges, models and resources continue to build—and along with them builds the opportunity to realize the potential of the combination of explicit instructional design and delivery with UDL in the classroom.