National Technical Institute for the Deaf

The primary mission of the Research Center for Teaching and Learning (RCfTL) is to create a sustainable setting in which diverse teams of faculty and students conduct research that will improve deaf education, expose students to research practice, and prepare a future generation of NTID educational researchers and scholars. A secondary mission is to facilitate the development of collaborative partnerships between NTID faculty and faculty in the other colleges of RIT focused on education of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. The primary and secondary missions include four goals:

1. Identify and support applied research focused on (1) learning styles of the increasingly diverse population of DHH students, and (2) best practices for instruction of these students. Research will address these topics across all ages of students and instructional and learning environments, with a primary focus on middle, secondary, and postsecondary settings. 
2. Develop teams that draw faculty from across the university and, when possible, other universities nationally and internationally. Teams reflecting diverse levels of experience and methodologies are encouraged.
3. Engage RIT/NTID students in research teams to expose them to the field of applied research and possible careers as researchers.
4. Implement a cyclical “seed to harvest” model of growth and sustainability. Project teams supported with initial start-up funds will be expected to secure external funding within three years, which in turn will provide funding to maintain the initial projects and contribute seed funds to support new teams and start-up projects.