The Scientific Reasoning Research Institute (SRRI) is an interdisciplinary group of regular, research, and adjunct faculty working to:
- conduct research on reasoning and cognitive processes involved in the learning of science and mathematics, and
- apply these findings to improve science and mathematics education.
The Institute encompasses a core group of investigators with backgrounds in biology, physics, mathematics, education and psychology. It has earned a very favorable national and international reputation, and has demonstrated continuous success at capturing external support for its research and curriculum development programs.
SRRI is a division of the UMass College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM), parallel to academic departments but with a different mission.
SRRI projects provide many direct benefits for the campus community by: providing financial support for graduate and undergraduate students; directing theses and independent study projects; promoting interactions with local school teachers, fostering instructional innovation, and promoting liaison with other internal and external researchers.
The general goals of the Institute are the same now as they were when it was established, namely to research the thinking processes underlying the learning and doing of science and to improve science and mathematics instruction at all levels. If we measure accomplishment by the number of publications, international reputation, acquisition of external support, professional advancement of former student associates, and service to the campus community, SRRI must be defined as extremely successful. The success of the Institute is due entirely to the personnel who define it. The Institute is especially fortunate to have in residence Professor Emeritus Ernst von Glasersfeld, a world renowned philosopher.
In addition to research publications, past SRRI projects have resulted in the publication of several important sets of curricular materials: Preconceptions in Mechanics: Lessons Dealing with Students’ Conceptual Difficulties by Charles Camp and John Clement; Minds•On Physics, a full-year high-school physics curriculum by SRRI’s Physics Education Research Group (PERG); and Datascope, Probsim, and TinkerPlots, computer software and curriculum materials for teaching probability and statistics by Cliff Konold and the [Statistics Education Research Group (SERG)]/serg.
The Institute is governed by the Director, who reports directly to the Dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics and to the Vice Chancellor for Research.
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