Please post information about research support UDL here.

Action Research 

Action Research questions allow teachers to informally evaluate their own teaching practices.  Posing an action research question is now a part of the BC UDL Project application process and former team leaders are also encouraged to develop action research questions in order to evaluate their UDL implementation.

Daryl Cummings, a year 1 team member from Coquitlam, has put together a very interesting informal study (and literature review) looking at the question of whether the investment in interactive whiteboards is justified.

UDL Implementation Rubrics and Checklists

Teachers in Year 2 of the project have created an informal rubric describing what it would look like if a teacher had implemented UDL.  Technology is just one strand of this rubric which describes many excellent teaching practices.  In year 3, the project participants will use the rubric to indicate where they are in the implementation process pre and post project.  A grad student in Illinois will use a modified version as an assessment tool in her dissertation.  Rubric for Implementation of UDL 2008-2009 teams.doc

Clark County Schools in Kentucky uses this UDL checklist to gather information about the implementation of UDL in their schools.

Research on Technology Used in the Project

While it is possible to implement some UDL principles in your teaching without technology, being able to use technology definitely expands your ability to provide differentiated instruction.  In choosing technologies for the project, we wanted to ensure there was a research base supporting their effectiveness. 

Kurzweil Educational Systems has done an excellent job of showing how Kurzweil 3000 supports UDL principles in this downloadable .pdf.  Several research studies have been conducted which show the efficacy of Kurzweil in supporting students with learning disabilities. 

SMART Technology has just published a White Paper showing how SMARTBoards support UDL principles in this downloadable .pdf. 

A new Promethean study shows substantial growth in student learning with teachers who have 10 years of experience and 2 years of experience using a whiteboard.