Universal Design for Learning

Most, but not all Emergent Complexity Discourses are explicitly aligned with Complex Systems Research – that is, they are concerned with understanding systems that transcend their parts. A uniting theme of Emergent Complexity Discourses is that global behaviors cannot be predicted on the basis of the rules governing the individual agents.

The Medical Model of (Dis)Ability and Motivation Theories complement one another. The former address what learners can/can’t do, and the latter deal with what learners will/won’t do. A comprehensive analysis of the Medical Model of (Dis)Ability is beyond our interests and purpose, and so, in the elaborated entry, we offer brief summaries of the many, many contemporary discourses, categorized as “Models and Types of Intelligence,” “Types of Disabilities,” and “Types of Learning Disorders.”

In education, Emergent Design Discourses are the teaching-focused complement of Emergent Complexity Discourses, which are more focused on the adaptive dynamics of learning systems than on the pragmatics of influencing learning. A uniting theme of Emergent Design Discourses is that learning is always dependent on, but never determined by teaching.

Differentiated Instruction is a teaching emphasis intended to meet the varied learning needs of all students. Most of its discussion is focused on diversities covered by Learning Styles Theories, Cognitive Styles Theories, and Developmentalisms, but attention is also given to socio-cultural sources (e.g., socioeconomic status, language, culture) and biologically rooted differences (e.g., gender, brain injuries).

Eco-Complexity Discourses is a sub-category of Coherence Discourses. It is an umbrella term that reaches across perspectives on learning that refuse separations of human from nature, material from transcendent, and part from whole. Across Eco-Complexity Discourses, learning is understood as synonymous with evolution.

Standardized Education includes those approaches to schooling that emphasize common programs of study, age-based grade levels, and uniform performance outcomes. The movement drew much of its inspiration and content from ancient traditions and religion, but its main influences have been industry and the physical sciences.

Ecology is the domain of science focused on the relationships of living things to their environments. As is frequently noted, the word is derived from the Greek for “house, dwelling place,” highlighting a simultaneous attentiveness to both the individual elements and to the system that comprises and transcends those elements. In education, proponents drawing on Ecological Discourses typically foreground multiple forms of relationship (e.g., biological, social, epistemological) while frequently situating discussions in relation to environmental well-being.

Activist Discourses are focused on interrogating the entrenched narratives and structures that infuse, lend support to, and help to perpetuate social norms and cultural institutions. Oriented by the conviction that there are no “neutral” acts or ideas, and critically attentive to the collective roots of personal convictions, Activist Discourses aim for deep understandings in order to inform and orient justice-oriented thinking and acting.