Cognition, Thinking & Understanding

What do thinking and learning look like, and under what conditions do they thrive? What is understanding and how does it develop? These and similar questions about the nature of human cognition have animated Project Zero inquires for several decades, beginning with early work in the nature of creativity and intelligence, to more recent work that emphasizes a performative view of understanding, a dispositional perspective on thinking, a focus on ‘visible thinking,’ and an exploration of the cultural forces that support good thinking. Over the years, Project Zero research initiatives in these areas have yielded a variety of frameworks and practices that help educators understand, design, and document powerful learning experiences in a range of disciplines and settings.

Resources

Article
Working the Paradox between Safety and Freedom
Published: 2018
Article from Ideas in Action at ISB...
Building a Space for 3- to 7-Year-Old Makers
Published: 2018
“The Creator Space feels like a big-kids room” It is afterschool time in the Creator Space. Four 10-year-old students are using the iPads to explore a tangram challenge on... Read more
Book
Children Are Citizens Book 2017
Published: 2017
People from all around the world know about Washington, DC. They talk about it, write about it, draw it, and make movies and TV shows about it. But almost always, we hear... Read more
Article
Towards a Pedagogy of Play
Published: 2016
Making room for playful learning in school can be difficult. Formidable tensions exist between playful learning and the way pedagogy is currently structured in most schools... Read more
Article
Playful Participatory Research: An emerging methodology for developing a pedagogy of play
Published: 2016
The Pedagogy of Play project aspires to change the way that educators, family members, and policy makers think about play and learning through play, and to offer tools and... Read more