Many new teachers leave the classroom for other professions within the first five years on the job. Tandra Tyler-Wood, associate professor of educational psychology, is leading a group of UNT researchers who want to change that. The group is studying and developing teaching methods for first-time teachers that will help keep more of them in the classroom.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the team of faculty from the College of Education and College of Information is evaluating simSchool, an online classroom simulator that allows budding teachers to run sample lessons and observe how each simulated pupil responds to different teaching methods. Already, the team has found that undergraduate students using simSchool have increased confidence and improved teaching skills.