Empowering teachers and students through evidence-based instructional design
“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”
-Nelson Mandela
The Technology of Teaching (ToT) lab is overseen by Dr. Catherine Williams in the psychology department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. We strive to improve education for all students by finding and sharing ways to teach that enable all students to learn. For us, learning does not mean doing well on a test; it means that these students are able to use what they’ve learned to continue to grow and excel in the real world. To uncover the most exciting and inspiring ways to teach, we conduct research with students of all ages in both classroom and laboratory settings and provide consultation for teachers and schools that want to incorporate these practices.
Sometimes, doing research in classrooms can cause students to miss valuable learning opportunities. One way we support students without taking them out of class is by creating a classroom-like experience in the laboratory. We create a classroom-like experience in the laboratory where we recruit adults to come to UNCW’s campus to learn a new concept. Our participants come for one long or several shorter sessions and are often paid for their time. Through these studies, we evaluate what ways of teaching work best so that we can apply those techniques to real undergraduate and K-12 classrooms.
Laboratory Research
Undergraduate students want to graduate feeling confident that they have the skills needed to excel in their careers. By asking research questions during college classes, we can evaluate different ways that undergraduate classes can be designed to empower students to do well.
Research in Undergraduate Classes
We work with local public schools to provide tutoring opportunities for student who are not thriving. During these tutoring sessions, we systematically collect data on how our students perform, so that we can determine the best way to tutor them. We know that our tutoring was successful when the student can not only complete all the new skills but are able to return to their classroom environment and use the skills we’ve taught them to learn even more! We use findings from these tutoring studies to make recommendations to local public schools.
Research in K-12 Classrooms
We work with teachers, administration, and counties to develop individualized goals based on their needs. Our goals typically involve aiding in the development and maintenance of multi-tiered intervention systems to:
implement systems that keep all students on track
develop early detection for students that start to fall behind
support students who are not excelling in their classes to get them caught up and help them keep up
School Consultation
Contact
Feel free to contact Dr. Williams with any questions by completing the form on the right. Use this form to:
Be notified about current/future opportunities to participate in our research studies
Express your interest in joining the lab as an undergraduate research assistant, master’s student, or doctoral student
Request additional information about the Technology of Teaching Lab