Use of Universal Design for Learning to Improve Teaching Practice and Student Motivation in Anatomy: An Intervention Proposal

In anatomy courses there are still students who are not motivated by their own learning process. The teacher<acute accent>s role is a key extrinsic factor that contributes to this bonding process. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational model that proposes a series of teaching application guidelines to activate students' affective neural networks, associated with the formation of motivated students. The objective of this study is to create an intervention proposal, based on the selective use of the UDL affective commitment guidelines, to improve teaching practice and student motivation in anatomy. It is an action research that uses Whitehead's model, involving the conceptual and methodological intersection between the UDL's affective commitment guidelines and the phases and factors that determine motivation. It corresponds to the programming of six anatomy laboratory sessions, the instruments for collecting information and the techniques for analyzing it. The intervention proposal has a theoretical value since it was designed based on an exhaustive analysis of the UDL and existing publications on motivation, and a practical value that is based on its direct and recursive applicability in anatomy laboratories and in the incorporation of the UDL in the curriculum of a higher education subject. Motivation is the driving force of education, since it drives and maintains academic work at both the student and teacher level. The UDL allows teachers to address student lack of motivation in an accessible, precise and reliable way, considering this one of the pillars of the intervention proposal.