Student-Centered Religious Learning and Literacy Lab (SCRoLL Lab)
Student-Centered Religious Learning and Literacy Lab (SCRoLL Lab) provides opportunities for Brandeis students to develop social scientific research skills, as they participate in a range of collaborative empirical studies all focused on how children read and understand sacred texts.
SCRoLL Lab Director Professor Ziva R. Hassenfeld supervises 4-8 Brandeis University undergraduate students each year in the lab. The group collaborates on everything from designing new studies, recruiting participants, developing data and assessment instruments, conducting ethnographic observations and other forms of data collection, analyzing data, and publishing their findings.
SCRoLL Lab's unique research explores how children comprehend texts. Using sacred texts as case study, the lab investigates what children do when they read and discuss sacred texts, how they talk about them with their teachers and classmates, and what interpretations they offer.
The lab’s research generates insights not only for educators who teach sacred texts, but also for the broader community of literacy educators.