Week 2

     There are three main UDL principles: engagement, representation, and action and expression. These three different principles are critical to be utilized in a classroom, as they allow many different types of learners to feel as though they belong and are comfortable getting involved. In this blog posting, I will be going over my understanding of what each UDL principle means and how I can model each one in my professional practice as an EA.

The first principle is engagement. This principle is focused on providing the students in your classroom with different ways to engage with the content they are learning. If students are allowed to choose from multiple ways to engage with their content, they will choose the way they believe will best support them, and therefore, feel more motivated to engage in the subject. Some examples are: relating the content to an interest of the students, collaborating with their peers, or having interactive games. In my practice as an education assistant, I would use this principle by connecting with my students and understanding their interests. If they have a specific show or movie that they love, I would discuss with them how the content could relate to this interest of theirs that is familiar to them, so they can then make the connection. The student will then feel not only motivated to work, but will feel like you, as their educator, want to know about them, and that they feel they have someone in the classroom who cares about them. 

The next principle is representation. Representation is the action of providing learners with options on how they would like to learn information. Some different options the students could choose from can be: audio, video, text, and visuals. This can make learning more fun, especially for subjects that might require a bit more motivation in order to keep students engaged, such as math or science. A great way I would put this principle into practice in my classroom would be to have a toolkit available for myself. Knowing a YouTube channel with educational videos, educational books, or film recommendations. Thankfully, we are in a generation where we have such easy access to so many different types of digital media, it would be quite easy to find one of the listed options of ways to learn that correlates to the content in the unit.

Finally, the last principle is action and expression. This principle is primarily set on different ways students can show and demonstrate what they understand and what they know. This is especially great for a classroom with students who have a wide range of learning styles. For example, if students were told to choose a medium to present their information they learned during a unit final, a student who may be a kinesthetic learner would choose to do their final project using molding clay. I had always found this principle exciting when I was in school, as it gave me the most motivation to complete my projects. To put this principle into practice, as it is similar to representation, another tool kit would be helpful, whether this was a digital toolkit, with videos, visuals, and audio, or a physical toolkit, that could include play-dough, or even crayons and paint. This way, students could choose the type of media that they are most excited about and that they are comfortable working with in order to demonstrate their learning. 

These principles are so important for us to be aware of, as they demonstrate how there are so many ways to support the different types of learners. Especially as we EAs will be coming into contact with students who require different supports, and may find that one way of learning is easier and more motivating than the other. 

Canada, Government of. “Introduction to Universal Design for Learning (UDL).” Digital Accessibility Toolkit, Gouvernement du Canada, 19 Sept. 2025, a11y.canada.ca/en/universal-design-for-learning-udl/. 

CAST, Inc. “The UDL Guidelines.” CAST Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, udlguidelines.cast.org/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2025.