Over nearly two decades at Project Zero, Jen has explored playful learning and teaching, maker-centered education, and the arts in schools and museums. Her current interests focus on teacher research and the cultivation of curiosity, wonder, and joy across ages and learning environments.
PZ Work
Jen is a senior research manager for Reimagining Early Childhood Education (RECE), investigating how early childhood education can best respond to today’s changing world. Through a collaborative inquiry approach with educators in the UAE, the team is exploring the challenges and opportunities in early learning and how we might reimagine ECE for the decades ahead.
Prior to RECE, Jen spent nearly a decade on the Pedagogy of Play (PoP) project, a cross-cultural exploration into questions around why educators need a pedagogy of play, what playful learning looks and feels like in classrooms and schools, and how educators can set up conditions where playful learning thrives. With her PoP teammates, Jen is co-author of A Pedagogy of Play: Supporting playful learning in classrooms and schools (2023).
Highlights
Across projects, Jen has enjoyed thinking about agency, dispositions, and adult learning.
Prior publications include "Playful provocations and playful mindsets: teacher learning and identity shifts through playful participatory research" (with Megina Baker, 2021); and Maker-Centered Learning: Empowering Young People to Shape their Worlds (with Edward Clapp, Jessica Ross, and Shari Tishman, 2016). She has designed and taught several online courses for PZ, most recently Let's Play: Teaching Strategies for Playful Learning.
Where to Find Jen
Though her office is at Project Zero in Cambridge, home is Portland, Maine. Jen loves being outside (especially in the cold), hiking, skiing, knitting, or playing anything with a racket. She lives with her family of makers and players.
Jen's Projects and Publications
Jen's PZ Pick
Jen recommends A Pedagogy of Play: Supporting Playful Learning in Classrooms and Schools. Why? "It’s a comprehensive look at the what, why, and how of bringing playful learning into formal school, with research that was conducted in partnership with educators. We talk about the tension between play and school, share research into how play supports learning, and offer practical tools and resources for educators to bring more playful learning into teaching practice, adult learning, and school culture. Also, it’s available as a free download in multiple languages and as an audio book!"