A Dance with the Butterflies: A Metamorphosis of Teaching and Learning Through Technology

Abstract

This paper describes a web-based collaborative project called A Dance with the Butterflies that applied the brain-based research of the Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST) and principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to Pre-K-4 science curriculum. Learning experiences were designed for students to invoke the Recognition, Strategic, and Affective neural networks for learning identified in the CAST research. Instruction was based on the Science Education content standard that all students should develop an understanding of the characteristics, life cycles, and environments of living organisms. Teachers designed interdisciplinary projects for students with the metamorphosis of the butterfly as the theme the unit. Participants from nine states and four countries learned about UDL to transform teaching and to collaborate through a blog that supported their learning. They shared new technology applications for use in their projects. The learning that occurred and the excitement to use technology for learning clearly demonstrate the power of the UDL framework for increasing engagement and understanding by all learners.

Students With Learning Disabilities in Inquiry-Based Science Classrooms: A Cross-Case Analysis

“…In line with this method of inquiry, educators could train general education student tutors in scaffolding techniques or provide a set of scaffolding questions for use during inquiry learning. Integrating peer tutoring in this manner could benefit all students by (a) creating a partnership where students work together and contribute equally in heterogeneous inquiry-based activities and the burden of all the work does not fall on one student (White & Frederiksen, 1998), (b) enabling the teacher to provide more time to assist student partnerships based on their levels of need (Menesses & Gresham, 2009), and (c) permitting teachers to assess student knowledge of science concepts through systematic ongoing performance assessments (McPherson, 2009). Because structured inquiry intends to provide scaffolding to guide students’ initial acquisition of content and then fade supports as necessary (Scruggs, Mastropieri, & Boon, 1998), using peer tutoring during inquiry would allow the gradual release of student support to accommodate the diversity of students in general education classrooms.…”

An Exploratory Study of Universal Design for Teaching Chemistry to Students With and Without Disabilities

“…Nonetheless, many authors have called for educators’ use of UDL techniques so that students with diverse learning needs are taught in educational environments designed to proactively design and deliver instruction responsive to students’ variable needs (cf. Jimenez, Graf, & Rose, 2007; King-Sears, 2001, 2009; McPherson, 2009; Pisha & Coyne, 2001; Stanford & Reeves, 2009; Zhang, 2005). Admittedly, there is widespread intuitive appeal that UDL techniques can promote learning for students with HID, particularly for techniques that can potentially increase students’ access to, and subsequent performance in, the general education curriculum.…”

The affordances of iPads for pupils, teachers and teacher educators in the documentation of visible learning and teaching

“…There is a wider literature too that, without engaging the notion of affordance, emphasises the potential of iPad technology to represent knowledge in innovative and multimodal ways (e.g. Clark & Luckin 2013;McPherson 2009;Nikolopoulou 2007;Ntuli & Kyei-Blankson 2010). However, there is also evidence that teachers prefer the bigger screens of older devices like desktop computers or laptops when it comes to composing long texts or creating multimedia artefacts (Chinnery 2006;Pegrum, Howitt & Stripes 2013).…”