VIDBE-Q 2025 Volume 70 Issue 4
Education, which emphasizes student agency, demonstrated competency,
customized support, and social-emotional learning.
The Bridges Pathway Model offers flexible and student-centered pathways
across critical areas, integrating the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) not as a
checklist of isolated skills but as a framework for deeper learning. ECC at Bridges
focuses on filling gaps in knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students with vision
impairments may miss due to a lack of incidental learning. The goal is not only
skill acquisition but also the development of sustainable, transferable
understandings that support independence and community participation. The ECC
is not a menu of isolated skills or a checklist of fun activities. Its true purpose is to
fill gaps in knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students with visual impairments
miss because of a lack of incidental learning. These gaps, left unaddressed, can
limit students' access to academics, independence, and participation in their
communities. To help students with vision loss live fulfilling lives, educators must
intentionally embed ECC throughout academic instruction—moving beyond
fragmented, activity-oriented approaches (Knight, 2013; McTighe & Wiggins,
2005). ECC is about designing learning experiences that build sustainable,
transferable understandings, not just providing moments of engagement.
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