Education that Matters (2-Day Online Conference)

18 - 19 March 2022, 6:00PM - 11:00PM Boston Time

19 - 20 March 2022, 9:00AM - 2:00PM Melbourne Time

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Please note: This event will not be recorded.

What and how should students learn to thrive in today’s complex world? What education will matter most to the lives they are likely to lead?   Some schools aspire to develop learners who are active and empathetic citizens. Others encourage complex reasoning or creativity. Leading progressive visions of what matters invites educators to reflect critically on the purposes of education in today’s world, engage in community discussions about the content and skills needed to achieve those purposes, and consider carefully the evidence that demonstrates such achievement.

Who should attend? Educators from all backgrounds and disciplines as well as those working with any student age group are welcome - classroom teachers, early childhood educators, after-school coordinators, informal/nontraditional learning instructors, museum educators, homeschoolers, nonprofit coordinators, and more. Whether you are new to Project Zero ideas or already expert in adapting and applying them, Education that Matters is an opportunity to reflect on your pedagogy, renew your inspiration for teaching and learning, and recharge.

• Conference Topics
• Schedule
• Plenaries
• Workshops

Conference Topics

This conference will highlight research and practices aimed to enrich essential thinking and learning for the world of today and tomorrow.  For several decades, Project Zero (PZ) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has led research and worked with educators in Victoria and throughout the world on developing approaches to learning and thinking that matter.  Participants in this event will learn from PZ researchers and educational practitioners through exploring tools, strategies, and frameworks. Conference attendees will participate in both large and small group sessions that will address one or more of the following themes of PZ research:

• Leading Learning & Change  What does it look like when schools develop visions and pedagogies that support “learning that matters” – knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are long-lasting and distinctive?  When supporting change in schools, how do leaders turn ideas into action? 
• Promoting Civic Engagement  What knowledge and skills are necessary for generative participation in today’s democratic societies? How can educators create meaningful opportunities to empower local and global citizenship?
• Creating a Culture of Thinking  Piloted with Bialik College in Melbourne, this project considers questions such as: How can learners be supported to develop dispositions that support thoughtful learning across school subjects? Why is it important to make thinking visible?
• Developing Agency by Design  How do young people develop a sense of agency by engaging in designing, making, and creating experiences?
• 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?
• Supporting Playful Learning  What does playful learning look and feel like in classrooms and schools? How do educators set up the conditions where playful learning thrives?

Schedule

Plenaries

Cultures of Thinking in Action: 10 Guiding Principles

Ron Ritchhart

Transforming schools and classrooms into cultures of thinking is more than merely instituting a set of practices. As useful as practices such as thinking routines, documentation, and effective questioning can be, culture runs deeper. Culture is built on our values and beliefs and embedded in the messages we send directly and indirectly. Thus, deep and lasting transformation must begin by embracing a set of beliefs about teaching, learning, and schooling. This plenary will explore the 10 key principles identified by the Cultures of Thinking Project as drivers of action in the classroom. These principles provide the touchstones we need as we create places where thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted.

From Vision to Action: Enabling Complex School Change

David Perkins & Flossie Chua

Challenges for schools can crop up at any time, often provoking responses that may cause turbulence in the school’s culture, practices, and direction. How can leaders and leadership teams best decide on truly fruitful changes, and how can they make the changes compelling and sustainable? This plenary introduces participants to an active research collaboration between ISV and Harvard Project Zero that is studying the opportunities and challenges of complex school change. The plenary shares key ideas that support schools as they design and reach for more reliable ways to achieve complex change in practical settings.

Arts as Civic Commons: Amplifying the Power of Arts to Spark Civic Inquiry

Shari Tishman & Carrie James

In a time of tumultuous change both locally and globally, works of art can be a powerful tool for provoking inquiry into the forces that shape civic life. These forces include the values, social conventions, power dynamics, institutions, and systems that shape how we live together—and how we aspire to live together—at every level of community life, from the local to the global. In this plenary, participants will learn about Project Zero’s Arts as Civic Commons project, generously funded by the Independent Schools Victoria, and explore how arts engagement can be a springboard for civic inquiry.

Workshops

Workshps led by Project Zero researchers.