Stay Curious
There’s an unspoken pressure felt by all teachers to have all of the answers before walking through the door. When Chayma Bouzenag (episode 148) began learning about Universal Design for Learning (UDL), she realized that this framework actually offered her some breathing space. It gave her, “permission to embrace not knowing.”
UDL doesn’t ask teachers to have everything figured out before they begin; UDL asks them to stay curious about their learners. That distinction matters. Staying curious shifts the teacher’s role from someone who must predict and prevent every obstacle to someone who consistently looks for opportunities to create flexible environments where different learners can find their footing. You can see my slight push against the singular message of using UDL to anticipate and lower barriers before the lesson begins. That mantra still holds true. What I’m asserting is the next crucial part of understanding how to apply and implement UDL.
UDL offers a different starting point AND a message for curiosity. We know that classrooms today routinely include students with different languages, different cultural backgrounds, and different histories with schooling. We all know that UDL asks us to design for that range from the beginning, but the message here is to stay curious. Ask how you can continue to lower those barriers that are going to pop up throughout the learning event. How do you do this?
Look at your big picture like Chayma did. She knew that she wanted to focus on helping her learners sustain their motivation when learning English, so she looked at the principle of Engagement. She focused on the guideline, Sustaining Effort and Persistence. That got her started, but she knew she needed to partner that guideline with others under Representation and Action & Expression. She intentionally and consistently wove ideas and tools from all three principles into her lessons while focusing on sustaining effort and persistence. She began to see her learners’ attention, effort and persistence improve. That deep planning established a learning environment where she didn’t have to make significant adjustments during the lesson. Instead, she had time to be curious about their interactions with the lesson, their peers, and the methods and materials. She had time to watch and offer the small shifts learners needed to stay on track and improve their outcomes.
Chayma shared that she now feels less overwhelmed and more grounded, not because everything is perfectly planned, but because the structure itself now holds space for the unexpected. Her planning and thinking are firmly rooted in anticipated variability. While she works to plan and establish that flexile environment, that same planning helps her think through other options and opportunities her learners might need.
That structure also makes collaboration between educators in her school more productive. When teachers share a common framework and a common lesson planning architecture, conversations about what’s working and what isn’t become more focused. Ideas travel more easily from one classroom to another. And when something isn’t working for a particular student, the framework gives teachers a useful question to return to. Which part of this design isn’t serving this learner and what would?
None of this requires perfection at the outset. In fact, striving for perfection is one of the most common reasons UDL implementation stalls. Teachers and administrators who make the most meaningful progress tend to be the ones who start somewhere, notice what happens, and adjust. They add one new element to a lesson plan. They offer one additional way to demonstrate learning. They build in one moment of genuine student choice. And then they pay attention for what worked, what needs to be adjusted, and what needs to be shelved for now. They stay curious.
The UDL framework is sometimes described as a journey. Even though the word “journey” is overused, that framing is worth taking seriously. It doesn’t flatten UDL into a checklist to be completed; instead, “journey” emphases the long-term commitment needed to try, reflect, and try again. That commitment deepens over time as teachers learn more about their learners and more about themselves as designers of learning experiences. And the guidelines grow more useful, not less, the longer you work with them.
Giving yourself permission to not know everything at the start isn’t a lowering of standards. It’s an honest acknowledgment of where learning begins, for students and for the educators who serve them. UDL doesn’t demand that teachers arrive already knowing. It gives them a framework for discovery and room to be curious. UDL provides all of us the opportunity to gain agency through curiosity.