Universal Design for Learning Module 2: Multiple Means of Engagement
Channel: Giulia Forsythe
Date: 03/03/2022

Throughout Module 2, we reflected on why learner engagement is important for learning

As educators, we must ask ourselves if learners find meaning in the learning. Learners ask themselves:
● How does this fit with my goals, values, and experiences?
● Is this good for me, bad for me, exciting, frightening, supportive, or threatening? 
● Am I relaxed, interested, at risk?

The “Why” of Learning includes the affective networks. These networks determine the emotional and motivational significance of the world around us as they motivate and prioritize what we do and what we learn. These drive our actions by valuing and prioritizing what we do and learn; setting our “values” or priorities, influence experiences, and that drive our actions. All of this is located at the very centre of the brain and correspond to the UDL principle of Engagement.

As bell hooks (1994) said, “Critical reflection on my experience as a student in unexciting classrooms enabled me not only to imagine that the classroom could be exciting but that this excitement could coexist with and even stimulate serious intellectual and/or academic engagement.”

A strategy to recruit all learners equitably is to follow the Multiple Means of Engagement principle which provides options for recruiting interests, sustaining effort and persistence, and self-regulation. In recruiting interests, including learners equitably is providing sources of information that are meaningful and relevant to different racial, cultural, ethnic, and gender groups. This proactive approach is culturally sustaining because it empowers students by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Fovet, 2021). In order for “mastery-oriented learning to occur” learners must also be able to see their learning environment as a place which is safe for success and failure.

Ask yourself:
● How can I make it safer for learners to fail and share that experience with one another? 
● What systemic framing of failure within the educational systems needs to be discussed in the learning environment in order for learners to become comfortable with the discomfort of failure?