Cultures of Thinking Summit

The CoT Summit is hosted by the Del Mar Union School District at Pacific Sky School in San Diego. The Pacific Sky School is approximately 7 miles from Del Mar Village, 10 miles from La Jolla, and 23 miles from the San Diego airport. Information about accommodations can be found here. 

Ron Ritchhart is a world-renowned educator, researcher, and author. For over 25 years, he served as a senior research associate and principal investigator at Project Zero where his research focused on understanding how to develop, nurture, and sustain "cultures of thinking" for both students and teachers. After leaving Harvard in 2021, Ron continued his classroom and school-based research and writing to further the ideas of visible thinking and the creation of schools as cultures of thinking. His ability to seamlessly merge theory, research, practice, and application together in a highly accessible and engaging manner has made him a sought-after speaker and best-selling author of numerous books, including Intellectual Character, Making Thinking Visible, Creating Cultures of Thinking, The Power of Making Thinking Visible, and Cultures of Thinking in Action. Ron is the director of the Cultures of Thinking Foundation, which supports educators worldwide in the efforts to develop their students as powerful thinkers and learners.

Mark Church works throughout the world with schools that wish to create cultures of thinking in their classrooms. He believes in the difference teachers can make for students when they strive to make thinking visible, valued, and actively promoted as part of the day-to-day experience of their learners. Mark encourages teachers to become students of their students, and more broadly, students of themselves and the choices they make to leverage the power of making thinking visible. Mark is currently a consultant with Project Zero's Making Thinking Visible and Cultures of Thinking initiatives, drawing upon his own classroom teaching experience and the perspectives he has gained working with educators across grade levels and content areas. Together with Ron, Mark is co-author of the book Making Thinking Visible (also with Karin Morrison) and The Power of Making Thinking Visible.

Jim Reese was the founding director of WISSIT and the Professional Development Collaborative at Washington International School. Currently he works as an independent consultant in education. Jim has 30+ years experience as a classroom teacher, school administrator, conference organizer, and workshop leader. He has been affiliated with Project Zero at Harvard's Graduate School of Education since 2001—after finding success using the Teaching for Understanding framework in his classroom, working both in public and international schools.  Jim works to ensure a quality education for all and has spent years bringing educators together from a variety of school settings—traditional public, public charter, independent, international, religious, early learning centers, and  museums—through engaging learners deeply in order to develop thinking dispositions and a sense of agency in their own learning; creating a Culture of Thinking in a classroom and across a school; and leading a school to sustain such practices in the long term. Jim also has extensive experience working with efforts to engage young people--as young as three—in developing a sense of civic agency.

Tina Blythe has been a researcher at Project Zero for nearly 30 years. She is part of PZ’s online learning leadership team and is the education chair of the Project Zero Classroom summer institute. She is also a lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Central to her research and teaching are how to create and sustain learning environments that support understanding. Collaborative inquiry and the collaborative assessment of student and teacher work are key focuses of her work. She began her career as a middle and high school teacher, and she leads workshops and provides consultation for organizations and schools around the world. She is the author and co-author of a number of books and articles include Looking Together at Student Work, 3rd Ed. (Blythe, Allen, & Powell; Teachers College, 2015); Facilitating for Learning (Allen & Blythe; Teachers College, 2015); and The Facilitator's Book of Questions (Allen & Blythe; Teachers College, 2004). She is the lead author of The Teaching for Understanding Guide (Jossey-Bass, 1998), which has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Swedish, and Georgian.