"Ways of Knowing and Making Meaning" (Consideration 3.3)

Each of us has our own way of looking at the world around us as we strive to better understand it. In this episode of the UDL Guidelines podcast, we'll consider how honoring diverse approaches to understanding—from the empirical and experiential to the Indigenous and creative—allows educators to create more inclusive and impactful learning experiences. We'll review practical strategies for diversifying your assignments, presentations, and learning materials. Whether you're redesigning a course or just looking to enable the collaborative construction of meaning in your classroom, this episode will provide you with practical strategies that you can use to implement Universal Design for Learning in your work.

This podcast is brought to you by the Goodwin University Institute for Learning Innovation and the Center for Teaching Excellence, specializing in Universal Design for Learning. Our goal is to transform how you think about teaching and learning. Learn more at goodwin.edu.

Resources

CAST. (2024). Cultivate multiple ways of knowing and making meaning. Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. https://udlguidelines.cast.org/representation/building-knowledge/making-meaning/ 

Knowles Teacher Initiative. (2025, May 27). Different ways of knowing: In support of a broadened life science classroom. https://start.knowlesteachers.org/resource/different-ways-of-knowing-in-support-of-a-broadened-life-science-classroom

Walsh, R., & Danto, D. (2024). Ways of knowing and higher education. In M. E. Norris & S. M. Smith (Eds.), Leading the way: Envisioning the future of higher education. Canadian Digital Scholarly Publishing. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/futureofhighereducation/ 

Gurm, B. (2013). Multiple ways of knowing in teaching and learning. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 7(1), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2013.070104 

Knowles, M., Holton, E. F., III, Robinson, P. A., & Caraccioli, C. (2025). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (10th ed.). Routledge.

Credits

Based on UDL Tips by Diana J. LaRocco, EdD
Produced and Hosted by Brian A. Dixon, PhD
Music by Lynne Publishing

Transcript

Welcome to UDL Guidelines. This podcast is brought to you by the Goodwin University Institute for Learning Innovation and the Center for Teaching Excellence, specializing in Universal Design for Learning. Our goal is to transform how you think about teaching and learning. I'm Dr. Brian A. Dixon, and today we’ll explore UDL 3.0 Consideration 3.3, “Cultivate Multiple Ways of Knowing and Making Meaning.” This particular guideline encourages us to honor the many diverse ways of developing an understanding of the world.

Humans use different methods to understand the world around them and create knowledge. Rather than assuming there's only one "correct" way to know something, Universal Design for Learning recognizes that people from different cultures and backgrounds have developed distinct approaches to understanding their circumstances. When we cultivate and value diverse methods of understanding and interpreting the world, we facilitate richer, deeper, and more inclusive learning experiences.

A poet who is attentive to sensation, for instance, might focus on metaphor and emotional resonance, writing about how grief resides in the chest, or how joy radiates through the limbs. A historian might approach the human body by examining shifting cultural attitudes toward health, medicine, and anatomy. A parent knows the body through immediate, practical experience—recognizing a fever by touch, or anticipating their child’s needs. Each approach reveals a different aspect of what it means to be human.

While there are many ways to categorize how humans understand the world, six fundamental approaches are common across cultures and disciplines. Empirical or scientific knowledge involves learning through observation, measurement, and experimentation. Experiential knowledge means learning through personal and community experience. Indigenous knowledge systems emphasize learning through relationships, stories, and connection to place. Intuitive or creative knowledge comes through insight, imagination, and artistic expression. Rational or logical knowledge develops through reasoning and logic. And cultural or traditional knowledge is learned through customs and shared practices passed down through the generations.

It's always helpful to take a moment here, at the start, to think about why this approach is so important. Education has traditionally privileged one way of knowing. We recognize it in the analytical, research-focused approach that emphasizes written evidence, peer review, and objective analysis. Increasingly, however, we are coming to recognize the educational value in considering alternative perspectives.

Students engage with learning materials in different ways. Some benefit from independent reading, others benefit from listening to stories or hands-on activities. Using multiple approaches strengthens learning for everyone. Multiple perspectives improve comprehension, and incorporating diverse ways of thinking enhances learning and results in deeper understanding. 

We're preparing our students for a diverse workplace, where graduates will enter careers requiring them to work with people who approach real-world problems in different ways. Today, businesses and organizations are looking for employees who can collaborate on diverse teams that incorporate academic research, community expertise, professional practice, and lived experience to solve complex problems. We’re expanding rather than abandoning academic standards here. Cultivating ways of knowing and making meaning recognizes that human understanding is richer and more complex than any single approach can capture. This is the realization that can lead us to more robust teaching and learning.

How can we implement this in practice? Respecting different ways of knowing transforms how we teach and how our students learn. Let’s consider some concrete strategies that can be used to incorporate multiple approaches into your instruction across three key areas: assessments and assignments, teaching methods, and learning materials.

Let's start with assessments and assignments. Learning assessments, both formative and summative, are outcome-aligned and designed to gather information about what our students are learning. Recognizing different ways of knowing means designing multiple pathways for students to show us what they understand.

First, design authentic assessments. Create assignments that mirror how knowledge is actually used in a professional or community setting. For example, you might have human services students conduct actual intake interviews and develop care plans for simulated clients rather than essays about case management theory, or you might have nursing students create patient education materials they could use in a clinical setting.

Second, offer multiple ways to demonstrate learning. I know it, and you know it—not all students excel at traditional essays. Consider presentations, projects, portfolios, or creative works. For instance, students studying climate change might write a research paper, create an infographic for community education, develop a policy proposal, or design a public awareness campaign.

Third, recognize the value in different forms of evidence. Students might demonstrate their understanding through analysis, storytelling, problem-solving, or creative expression. A student might show understanding of conflict resolution through a case study analysis, a role-play demonstration, a reflective narrative about personal experience, or a visual flowchart of mediation steps.

Fourth, encourage perspective-taking. Ask the students in your classroom to examine key issues from multiple viewpoints or apply different disciplinary lenses. You might ask medical assisting students to examine a treatment plan from the perspectives of the patient, the physician, the insurance provider, and the family members.

These kinds of strategies will naturally lead to a change in your methods of teaching. Methods encompass a wide range of activities, processes, and learning experiences. Recognizing different ways of knowing means diversifying how we facilitate learning.

You can diversify your own instructional approach by combining lectures with storytelling, case studies, hands-on activities, and images. For example, you might introduce photosynthesis through a scientific diagram, a time-lapse video, a hands-on lab with plants, as well as an Indigenous legend about the relationship between plants and humankind.

Include multiple perspectives by asking yourself, "How might someone from a different background or discipline understand this concept?" When teaching students about the 1960s, include academic historical analysis, oral histories from people who lived through the era, music and art from the period, and international perspectives on historic American events.

Educators can use experiential learning to connect abstract concepts to real-world applications and student experience. We can connect abstract concepts about exponential growth to the student experience with viral social media posts or compound interest on student loans. We might apply geometric principles to their observations of the architecture on your college campus.

You can guide students toward constructing collaborative meaning by creating opportunities for them to work together in building understanding, encouraging them to share diverse interpretations and co-construct knowledge through dialogue and shared problem-solving. When teaching ventilator management, for instance, you could have small groups analyze the same patient case from different perspectives—considering respiratory physiology, equipment mechanics, patient comfort, and care coordination—before they come together to synthesize their findings into a comprehensive care plan.

Create space for different approaches to learning by providing opportunities for discussion, reflection, and hands-on activities to engage all students. When teaching statistical concepts, include group discussions about data interpretation, individual reflection on personal experiences with statistics in daily life, and interactive tasks like conducting surveys or analyzing real world datasets.

Finally, let's look at learning materials themselves. Materials are the tools and resources that we use to present content and support learning, as well as what our students use to demonstrate their understanding. Recognizing different ways of knowing means providing options beyond traditional academic materials. Here are a few suggestions that might prove useful in your practice.

You can extend beyond traditional texts by including documentaries, podcasts, multimedia resources, and guest speakers from the community. A chapter on immigration might be supplemented with a documentary featuring immigrant voices, a podcast interview with policy experts, as well as data visualizations showing migration patterns.

Incorporate diverse sources by supplementing academic materials with practitioner knowledge and cultural perspectives. In a class on mental health, you might include academic research, guidelines from therapists, first-person accounts from those with lived experience, and cultural approaches to wellness.

Include contemporary examples to connect historical or theoretical concepts to current events and student experience. History lessons about propaganda could be easily connected to current examples of misinformation on social media. Economic theories might be related to the latest updates on inflation.

Use varied formats by combining visual elements like infographics and diagrams with audio elements like recordings and discussions to reinforce learning. This benefits all of your students. When teaching about the cardiovascular system, for instance, provide an anatomical diagram, a recorded lecture explaining blood flow, and an in-class discussion connecting the concepts to student experiences with exercise and heart rate.

This UDL principle, like others, is intended to be expansive rather than subtractive. You don’t have to toss away the traditional academic methods that you’ve spent years developing. This approach can and will expand your teaching toolkit. Different approaches reveal different understandings of the world, and when we create space for that diversity, we're building more inclusive, effective, and authentic learning experiences for all students.

You don’t have to choose between different ways of knowing, deciding which of them is best. Universal Design for Learning encourages us to consider when and how each might contribute to helping students build knowledge in ways that are meaningful to them. I encourage you to pick one strategy from today's episode, try it out, and share what works with your colleagues. When we honor multiple ways of knowing, everybody wins.

Thanks for joining me today as we explored UDL 3.0. Resources and further reading for today's episode can be found in our show notes. If today's episode inspired a change in your teaching practice, we'd love to hear about it. Connect with us at the Goodwin University Institute for Learning Innovation at goodwin.edu.