In its report published on June 13, entitled The student first, the Québec Ombudsman, Marc-André Dowd, stresses the need to tackle the learning difficulties of elementary school students. Its solution is to offer complementary educational services, such as remedial education, psychoeducation, speech therapy, special education or psychology, with the aim of facilitating the integration of children with adjustment or learning difficulties. learning in regular classrooms.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
A better approach is to modify what happens in the classroom itself, so that teaching meets the needs of different types of learners.
Unable to meet the high demand for individual adaptations, some of North America’s top universities, including McGill and Harvard, have begun implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) practices into their teaching. several years ago. UDL is based on the architectural concept of Universal Design: creating inclusive spaces that are accessible to everyone, regardless of age or physical ability. For example, stairs are an obstacle for people with certain physical limitations. Universal design requires that wheelchair-friendly ramps are also incorporated into building design, as ramps, unlike stairs, are suitable for everyone.
This is called a ‘social model’, where accommodations are built directly and deliberately into the design to accommodate more users and avoid discrimination.
Unfortunately, our schools seem to be stuck in the old “medical model”, where the student leaves the classroom to receive educational services. This approach assumes that the problem is with the student, when in reality it is the classroom that is not equipped to meet the student’s needs.
UDL focuses on removing barriers to learning and creating the optimal learning conditions for the greatest number of students. This approach is not only more respectful of students with different learning needs, it is also more efficient and cost effective.
Beyond the “medical model”
At Centennial Academy, a school that attracts many bright but struggling students, we could no longer afford to continue using the traditional “medical model”. Although our students have a wide variety of difficulties – almost all have a diagnosis of one or more learning disabilities, such as ADHD, dyslexia and high-functioning ASD – we have found that the interventions offered for each diagnosis were almost identical. In line with UDL principles, we have therefore incorporated many accommodations, such as color coding, graphic organizers, use of visual aids and predictable teaching routines, into each classroom so that all students can have access. As a result, 90% of this year’s class of 62 students completed the rigorous provincial curriculum and graduated within five years.
Another key to our success has been to dramatically change the role of the teacher. We empower our teachers to leverage their training and expertise by focusing only on what really matters: maximizing student learning.
We leave it to other staff members to supervise students and coach sports activities, and we have resources dedicated exclusively to communication with parents, which ensures consistent and effective communication, allowing parents to monitor their child’s progress very closely. In addition, we have an entire team dedicated to student success: coaches and learning support staff who collect data on student performance and behavior and ensure that the individual needs of students are satisfied and that the objectives are achieved. With this approach in place, teachers have the time to work with small groups of students and ensure that learning is accessible and meaningful for all. As a result, student performance improved, in almost all cases without recourse to specialists.
In addition, our approach is affordable: our cost per student is comparable to the educational services offered by the ombudsman, but our approach, unlike his, is inclusive and does not marginalize students.
I want to emphasize that Centennial Academy is not unique. Schools in Britain and the United States have taken a similar approach.
The province of Quebec has long embraced the idea of schools with specialized mandates, such as sports studies and the arts. Isn’t it time to test the UDL method in some public schools? In doing so, we would then truly live up to our commitment to student success.