The Project Zero Sydney Network was formed in 2016 by a group of Sydney teachers connected by their passion for quality education. They were united by their passion for teaching that engaged the learner in active thinking and that would result in deep understandings. Their search for excellence had led them each in separate ways to the research projects of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) “Project Zero’. After initial conversation, it was decided that a network should be formed with the aim of providing broad access to these ideas and to do so at no cost.
According to the PZ Sydney website:
The Project Zero Sydney Network (PZSyd) is a network of Sydney educators inspired by Project Zero ideas from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Drawing on Project Zero pedagogy and practice, we believe that:
learning is a consequence of thinking
understanding is not only something you have, but something you do
intelligence is not one thing, but many, and is something that can be learned
thinking skills alone are not sufficient; we must also have the disposition to use them
thinking and learning are processes that are deepened when we make them visible
collaboration is the stuff of learning.
A central aim of PZSyd is to share our passion for Project Zero ideas with others by providing free professional learning opportunities for Australian educators.
The PZ Sydney Network relies heavily upon the ideas emanating from a now 50-year-old research project within HGSE. Project Zero has a strong research agenda in the arts, the nature of intelligence, understanding, thinking, creativity, cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural thinking, and ethics. Founding members of this project include Prof. David Perkins & Prof. Howard Gardner. Key projects include Making Thinking Visible (led by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church & Karin Morrison), Multiple Intelligences (led by Howard Gardner) Teaching for Understanding (led by Tina Blythe), Creating Cultures of Thinking (led by Ron Ritchhart & Mark Church), Agency by Design (led by Edward, P. Clapp). Emerging projects and smaller-scale endeavours include Pedagogy of Play, Out of Eden Learn, Leading Learning that Matters and a range of social justice projects. The common link is that these projects explore practical actions that might be implemented by teachers so as to engage learners in learning through thinking with the result being deep learning and participatory engagement.
The PZ Sydney Network has achieved many of its goals in the past five years. Most importantly the network has been able to provide high-quality professional development to many educators through free events large and small and both face-to-face and online. The PZ Sydney Network has been able to expand its reach and in recognition of this is transforming to become the PZ Australia Network.
You can learn more about the PZ Australia Network by visiting http://pzaustralia.net/
By Nigel Coutts