Project Zero Perspectives: Leading, Learning, & Thinking

For almost fifty years, researchers at Harvard’s Project Zero (PZ) have led investigations into arts and education, the nature of intelligence, understanding, thinking, creativity, cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural thinking and ethics. During the past decade, PZ has had a prominent presence in a number of Australian schools in Victoria with researchers from Harvard working alongside teachers to cultivate student thinking and learning. The March conference will highlight several ongoing projects with schools in Victoria, as well as PZ practices that aim to enrich thinking and learning opportunities for students.

Event Summary

For almost fifty years, researchers at Harvard’s Project Zero (PZ) have led investigations into arts and education, the nature of intelligence, understanding, thinking, creativity, cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural thinking and ethics.  During the past decade, PZ has had a prominent presence in a number of Australian schools in Victoria with researchers from Harvard working alongside teachers to cultivate student thinking and learning.  The March conference will highlight several ongoing projects with schools in Victoria, as well as PZ practices that aim to enrich thinking and learning opportunities for students.

In exploring tools, strategies, and frameworks developed at PZ, conference attendees will participate in both large and small group sessions, each addressing one or more of the following strands:

• Creating a Culture of Thinking: Piloted with Bialik College in Melbourne, this project considers the following questions: How do we help learners develop dispositions that support thoughtful learning across school subjects? Why is it important to make thinking visible?

• Growing Up in the Digital Age: What are the civic, moral and ethical opportunities and challenges afforded by the digital age? How are the meanings of local and global citizenship and civic action shifting? What are the implications for civic education?

• Leading Learning That Matters: Working with a dozen Independent Schools in Victoria, this project examines: What does it look like when schools develop pedagogies that support “learning that matters” locally and nationally? What does leadership look like in schools that focus on learning that matters?

• Making Learning Visible: How can visible representations of thinking be used as a force for student learning? How do we document and assess student and teacher learning in order to further our own learning? How does making learning visible support effective collaborative endeavors in a variety of contexts?

Harvard’s Project Zero organizes this conference in collaboration with the Center for the Advancement and Study of International Education (CASIE) and invites educators from all contexts to learn from and alongside PZ researchers and practitioners.  For more information about the work of Project Zero researchers as well as information about the conference program, the Harvard faculty, the Australian-based speakers, and a link to register, please click here.  For a flyer about the event, please see the links in the sidebar to the right.

Conference organized in collaboration with