WELCOME TO THE LECS LAB!
The Literacy Education and Cognitive Science Lab studies how readers make sense of texts and use their understanding to create new texts and ideas.
Good readers can learn about discoveries new and old, imagine experiences in distant lands, grasp sophisticated perspectives on complex phenomena—all by engaging with words written on a page or screen. So how do young children grow into good readers, and what can educators do to cultivate their literacy skills?
The LECS Lab uses the methods of cognitive science and applied education research to explore how learners from early childhood through adolescence grapple with and master the language and literacy skills they need to learn with texts. Led by Dr. Lisa Hsin, the LECS Lab team conducts studies about teaching and learning in the lab and in the classroom, often focusing on students who speak more than one language or dialect, and we ground our work in partnerships with educators, students, and families.
ABOUT THE LECS LAB
The LECS Lab was originally founded in 2016 as the ECS Lab (Education and Cognitive Science Lab) at the University of Alabama (UA). The Lab is housed in the Program in Educational Psychology/Neuroscience in the UA College of Education’s Educational Studies department. We are proud to be a highly collaborative group of researchers with extensive classroom experience. The work of the LECS Lab addresses questions related to language and literacy that straddle research traditions, including cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, second language studies, teacher professional learning, implementation science, and more. The Projects page offers more information about prior and ongoing work; on our site you can also get to know the People who make that work happen and find out the latest News about us like new studies, grants, publications, and presentations.
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