Clark A. Chinn
Chair and Distinguished ProfessorEducational Psychology
Clark Chinn is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University—New Brunswick. His research focuses on epistemic cognition, reasoning and argumentation, learning from multiple documents, learning through inquiry, and collaborative learning. His most recent work has focused on how to promote the goals of epistemic education—education that improves students’ ways of knowing and thinking—with a particular focus on promoting better thinking in our so-called “post-truth” world. He has also worked extensively on model-based inquiry in middle-school science classes—designing learning environments and investigating how these environments promote conceptual change and epistemic growth. He was Editor of the journal Educational Psychologist from 2011 to 2015. He is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, of the American Psychological Association (Division 15—Educational Psychology), and of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. He has co-edited several books, most recently the International Handbook of Inquiry and Learning.
• Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• American Educational Research Association
• American Psychological Association, Division 15 (Educational Psychology)
• European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction
• International Society of the Learning Sciences
• Society for Text and Discourse
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Expertise & Research Interest
Epistemic cognition
Reasoning
Learning through inquiry
Conceptual change
Classroom research
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Research Work With Students
My research focuses broadly on instructional methods for promoting better thinking and reasoning among students. I have collaborated with Ravit Duncan on two NSF grants investigating methods of teaching that promote model-based inquiry practices among middle-school science students. We are currently investigating in quasi-experimental classroom studies the effects of different methods for scaffolding student reasoning. More information about this project can be found at this site: www.praccis.org.
In a closely related line of research, I have been working on what epistemic cognition is and how it can be enhanced. In this work, I have sought to bring ideas from the fields of epistemology and philosophy of science to improve our understanding of epistemic cognition. If you would like to know more about this line of research, please email me.
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Recent & Selected Publications
Chinn, C. A., Barzilai, S, & Elby, A. (in press). Epistemic rights in tension and accord: Expanding the analysis of source evaluation criteria. Educational Psychologist.
Barzilai, S., & Chinn, C. A. (in press). How do source evaluation criteria develop? A microgenetic study of growth of epistemic ideals. Computers in Human Behavior, 172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2025.108729
Murphy, D., Duncan, R. G., Chinn, C. A., Danish, J., Hmelo Silver, C. E., Zhou, J., & Ryan, Z. (2025). Elementary students’ metacognitive knowledge of epistemic criteria. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 62(7), 1721-1742. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.22030
Kainulainen, M., Puurtinen, M., & Chinn, C. A. (2025). Regrounding Inquiry-Based Learning in History: A Study of Historians’ Epistemic Processes. Cognition and Instruction, 43(4), 291-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2025.2503193
Duncan, R. G., & Chinn, C. A. (2025). Evaluating the quality of argumentation: The role of epistemic ideals and reliable processes. Cognition and Instruction, 43(3), 201-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2025.2497240
Barzilai, S., & Chinn, C. A. (2024). The AIR and Apt-AIR frameworks of epistemic performance and growth: Reflections on educational theory development. Educational Psychology Review, 36:91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09927-5
Chinn, C. A., Yoon, S.A., Hussain-Abidi, H., Hunkar, K., Noushad, N., Richman, T. (2023). Designing learning environments to promote good thinking in a post-truth world: An example from science education. European Journal of Education, 58, 407–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12573
De Jong, T., Lazonder, A. W., Chinn, C. A., Fischer, F., Gobert, J., Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Koedinger, K. R., Krajcik, J. S., Kyza, E. A., Linn, M. C., Pedaste, M., Scheiter, K., & Zacharia, Z. C. (2023). Let’s talk evidence—The case for combining inquiry-based and direct instruction. Educational Research Review, 38, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2023.100536
Chinn, C. A., Duncan, R. G., & Av-Shalom, N. (2021). Applying the Grasp-of-Evidence framework to design and evaluate epistemically complex learning environments. Information and Technology in Education & Learning, 1(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.12937/itel.1.1.Inv.p004
Greene, J. A., Chinn, C. A., & Deekins, V. M. (2021). Experts’ reasoning about the replication crisis: Apt epistemic performance and actor-oriented transfer. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 30 (3), 351-400. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2020.1860992
Chinn, C. A., Barzilai, S., & Duncan, R. G. (2021). Education for a “post-truth” world: New directions for research and practice. Educational Researcher, 52 (1), 51-60. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20940683
Barzilai, S., & Chinn, C. A. (2020). A review of educational responses to the “post-truth” condition: Four lenses on “post-truth” problems. Educational Psychologist, 55, 107-119. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2020.1786388
Chinn, C. A., Barzilai, S., & Duncan, R. G. (2020). Disagreeing about how to know: The instructional value of Explorations into Knowing. Educational Psychologist, 55, 167-180. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2020.1786387
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Honors & Awards
Fellow of the International Society of the Learning Sciences
Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 15 (Educational Psychology)
Fellow of the American Educational Research Association
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