Educators and instructional designers have used the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to guide their design of inclusive instruction for students with and without disabilities. Despite UDL having entered its 4th decade of development and research, there have been ongoing critiques of UDL for lacking clarity in definition, challenges with implementation, and insufficient evidence of its effectiveness. These critiques warrant further evaluation of UDL, especially with a focus on the theoretical underpinnings behind its conceptualization and implementation. Thus, we synthesized 32 peer-reviewed studies published between 1999 and 2023 that focused on UDL implementation in preK-12 educational settings and measured various aspects of student learning outcomes (e.g., cognitive, motivational, and behavioral). Specifically, we evaluated each study’s intervention or instructional design in terms of its alignment to UDL checkpoints, guidelines, and/or principles as well as existing theories of learning or instructional design. Results revealed several interrelated challenges that stymie UDL research, including the absence of explicit alignment between UDL checkpoints and intervention or instructional designs investigated in the extant literature, the uneven coverage of implemented checkpoints and corresponding guidelines, the overlap among multiple checkpoints and guidelines, and the lack of theoretical guidance regarding the design and implementation processes. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for strengthening the research base for less frequently applied UDL checkpoints, recommendations for documenting checkpoints and relationships among checkpoints as indispensable components of UDL implementation, and directions for future research conducted via systematic UDL implementation guided by established theories.

教育工作者和教学设计者使用通用学习设计（UDL）框架来指导他们为残疾和健康学生设计包容性教学。尽管 UDL 的开发和研究已进入第四个十年，但由于定义不明确、实施面临挑战以及其有效性证据不足，人们对 UDL 的批评仍在继续。这些批评值得对 UDL 进行进一步评估，特别是关注其概念化和实施背后的理论基础。因此，我们综合了 1999 年至 2023 年间发表的 32 项同行评审研究，重点关注 K-12 教育环境中 UDL 的实施，并衡量学生学习成果的各个方面（例如认知、动机和行为）。具体来说，我们根据 UDL 检查点、指南和/或原则以及现有的学习或教学设计理论的一致性来评估每项研究的干预或教学设计。结果揭示了阻碍 UDL 研究的几个相互关联的挑战，包括 UDL 检查点与现有文献中调查的干预或教学设计之间缺乏明确的一致性、已实施的检查点和相应指南的覆盖范围不均匀、多个检查点和指南之间的重叠以及缺乏有关设计和实施过程的理论指导。基于这些发现，我们提出了加强不常使用的 UDL 检查点的研究基础的建议、记录检查点和检查点之间的关系作为 UDL 实施不可或缺的组成部分的建议，以及在既定理论指导下通过系统 UDL 实施进行未来研究的方向。