The purpose of this action research project was to determine how my practice of implementing Universal Design for Learning-Representation (UDL-R) principles influenced my students’ understanding of content and enhanced their ability to organize their knowledge using concept maps. A secondary purpose of this action research project was to determine if student created concept maps served as a useful tool to enrich students’ written scientific explanations. Students in this study completed concept maps and wrote explanations about adaptations before and after participating in lessons enriched with UDL-R principles that included the use of multimedia sources, website searches, and trade books. The processes used to collect data for this action research project were concept maps, written explanations, student notes, and videotaped accounts of learning from UDL-R principles. The themes that emerged were deeper content understanding for students and greater engagement in learning through UDL-R practices as evidenced through student notes, student discussions and videotaped accounts. The students in this study showed minimal change in the total average scores on concept maps with mixed results for males versus female students’ scores. Although students’ concept maps and written explanations indicated minimal improvement or change, their notes listing thirty to over one hundred facts and their comments indicated their interest and engagement in the learning process supported by UDL-R practices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-2524 |
| Date | 01 January 2010 |
| Creators | Finnegan, Lisa A. |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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