Project Zero

Project Zero is a research group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education whose mission is to understand and enhance high-level thinking and learning across disciplines and cultures and in a range of contexts, including schools, businesses, museums, and digital environments. Founded in 1968 by the philosopher Nelson Goodman, Project Zero's early work was based on the idea that the arts learning should be studied as a serious cognitive activity. Goodman noted, however, that "zero" had been firmly estalblished about the field at that time; hence, the project was given its name.

In the intervening decades we have continued to investigate learning and the arts, and our work has expanded to include investigations into the nature of intelligence, understanding, thinking, creativity, and other essential aspects of human learning. Though the range of our work is admittedly quite broad, the thread connecting all of our inquiries is a persistent interest in three fundamental questions: What does learning look like? What's worth understanding today and tomorrow? How and where does learning thrive?