Pre‐service teachers' descriptions of UDL engagement guidelines that supported asynchronous professional experience coursework

Abstract The growth of asynchronous delivery in higher education has made it increasingly important to examine the conditions that support meaningful student engagement. This article reports on a qualitative case study of five pre‐service teachers (PSTs) enrolled in fully asynchronous professional experience (PEx) coursework at a large Australian university. PEx is the work‐integrated learning component of initial teacher education (ITE), where university coursework connects with supervised practice in schools and early childhood settings. The study draws on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to examine which guidelines PSTs identified as supporting engagement. Data were generated through semi‐structured interviews and analysed thematically. The findings show that in asynchronous PEx, engagement was supported by the two UDL engagement guidelines, including welcoming interests and identities and sustaining effort and persistence. The study shows that asynchronous PEx coursework can be a way of modelling differentiated practice for PSTs through multiple means of engagement that respond to learner differences. By experiencing this design as learners, PSTs can see how to enact differentiation in their own future practice.