Activity 5.2 Long-term Memory and Retrieval

I wonder how the concept of Universal Design for Learning came to be perceived as a new framework for instruction in the early 1990’s?  William James was promoting Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in 1892!  I found this quote in chapter XII to be absolutely stunning: 

“the only really useful practical lesson that emerges from this analytic psychology in the conduct of large schools is the lesson already reached in a purely empirical way, that the teacher ought always to impress the class through as many sensible channels as he can.  Talk and write and draw on the blackboard, permit the pupils to talk, and make them write and draw, exhibit pictures, plans, and curves, have your diagrams colored differently in their different parts, etc.; and out of the whole variety of impressions the individual child will find the most lasting ones for himself. (pp. 138-139)

James notes that the recommendation that teachers assess the channel through which each of their students more readily retains information and then teach the student primarily through that channel is not really practical in most classrooms and follows that observation with the comment above.  If you read information about UDL currently available in public (for instance on the CAST website http://www.cast.org/research/index.html ), you find that this concept is considered relatively new.  Perhaps it is the particular articulation of UDL which CAST lays claim to rather than the general concept.  I work in the field of special education and multiple means of representation and expression are a keystone in the design of specially designed and delivered instruction, but I agree with William James; any and all students benefit from this approach.  I have certainly found this to be true when I help my children with concepts that are difficult for them to grasp.  I simply approach the concept differently until I light upon a method or representation that works for them.