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Category: Project

Description: Students learn best when they feel engaged and supported (Eom & Ashill, 2016). We outline an innovative toolkit, which can be applied in whole or in part, to facilitate in-depth learning and critical thinking. Our toolkit, informed by Universal Design for Learning (UDL; CAST, n.d.-b), included 5 core readings with guiding questions (Cox et al., 2003; Hermida, 2009), Jigsaw activities over two class sessions (Aronson, n.d.; Minnesota Literacy Council, n.d.; Reading Rockets, n.d.), and an essay applying developmental theory and research to the real-world (O’Neill & Short, 2023): specifically, to autobiographies about social harm and adversity in youth. We evaluated this toolkit with 200 undergraduates in Child and Adolescent Development. However, the toolkit can be adopted for social psychology, social work, education, and across the social sciences.