Awareness of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) among Teachers in India

The present study investigates the awareness of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) among special and general teachers working in inclusive settings. UDL is a framework used to design a curriculum reachable to students with all abilities. UDL assists teachers to increase meaningful access to the curriculum and remove barriers for students with all abilities in learning. The roles and responsibilities of the teachers play an important role in implementing and transacting any curriculum to the learners. In the present study, the sample consisted of 429 teachers, teaching in primary, upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary stages of regular schools in Himachal Pradesh state of India. The sample for this study was selected through the purposive sampling technique and the descriptive survey research design was employed in the current study. Assessing awareness among teachers about UDL the questionnaire on UDL was used on the selected samples. The data was collected from samples through face-to-face interaction. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to compare the awareness level of UDL between special and general teachers. The result revealed that the teachers in Himachal Pradesh are not fully aware of the UDL. Special teachers have a higher awareness of UDL than general teachers. The result revealed that the teachers in Himachal Pradesh are not fully aware of the UDL. Special teachers have a higher awareness of UDL than general teachers and the successful implementation of UDL in inclusive setting require an entire school approach wherein every part of the system should be geared to address the needs of diverse students