Bronwyn, Could you say a bit more about what a universal design is? As a first impression, it sounded to me as the last thing you would want if you wish to accommodate difference.
My universal design would be one that seeks to create a hybrid culture of situated collaboration. It wouldn't seek to privilege any culture over another but rather to create a new culture of respect for all involved in the activity and the goal of mutual understanding. So what does your universal design mean?
I also think that we need to be aware of differences in pedagogical heritage when we talk about direct questioning because there are cultures I've worked with where the idea of peer-groups and self-directed learning would create huge tensions when the cultural expectation is one of being 'taught.' Such ideas need careful introduction and contextualising not to mention facilitation.
Nick
Thank you very much Nick for making me think a bit more about the subject by asking for a definition as I tend to work from the disability and learning point of view. Caroline Davies and I had a stab at it when working on a project about Inclusive teaching at the Open University. However, I know Trace also took a wider approach, but no mention of 'diversity' in terms of our new Equality Act 2010, that includes sexual orientation and religious belief as well as race, disability and gender.
I think my understanding of Universal design would be related to the point that EA makes - it grew, as far as web design goes, from Accessible design, but where "accessibility" focussed on ensuring those with disabilities could use the site, Universal design is aimed to ensure that everyone can use the site - so, that's where cultural awareness would come in - and it's also used for things other than just websites.
Re: Nick's point about students expecting to be 'taught' - I'm increasingly seeing that in English (not sure about the rest of the UK) students -those who've come up through the testing at 7/11/14/16/17/18 regime - wanting to know what they have to do to 'pass'. In some cases, it's the English students who expect 'teaching' even more than some of the international ones.
Re: Nick's point about students expecting to be 'taught' - I'm increasingly seeing that in English (not sure about the rest of the UK) students -those who've come up through the testing at 7/11/14/16/17/18 regime - wanting to know what they have to do to 'pass'. In some cases, it's the English students who expect 'teaching' even more than some of the international ones.