Based on decades of research in schools around the world, "Creating Cultures of Thinking" by Ron Ritchhart of Project Zero at Harvard's Graduate School of Education (HGSE PZ), presents eight "cultural forces" that we must master to truly transform our schoolS. Cultures of Thinking (CCOT) and Making Thinking Visible (MTV) are used widely in IB World Schools, developing competencies and approaches to teaching and learning to prepare our learners for agency, success and adaptability.
In the video interview above, Ron Ritchhart summarises the need for and ideas behind Creating Cultures of Thinking. It contains many great quotes that can be a stimulus for thinking and development.
Paraphrases from Ron:
Handouts to guide a COT Classroom (from PZ website):
Reflection Questions/ Activities for Stephen's WAB Lab Sessions
Resource link (pdf - Project Zero):
Stephen Taylor
Director of Innovation in Learning & Teaching
Coach: Project Zero Online (Creating Cultures of Thinking) IBEN: MYP Consultant & School Visitor
MA International Education, PGCE, BSc. Marine Biology
Website: i-Biology.net Twitter: @sjtylr
Blog: Wayfinder Learning Lab (sjtylr.net)
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Project Zero began more than five decades ago to address a gap in scholarship on arts-based education. Over the past fifty years, they have continued research on arts-based learning and expanded their work to ask questions about learning.
From Zero to Fifty: Marking a Half-Century of Project Zero’s Impact in Education
From developing arts-based education to understanding the nature of creativity, intelligence, thinking and learning, Project Zero has changed what we know about human potential and educational practices. Director Daniel Gray Wilson highlights Project Zero’s contributions.
Valuing Thinking in the Arts
Why study the arts? Can the arts help us think? Does arts education have value for other areas of the curriculum? Ellen Winner shows how Project Zero is finding real answers to these often elusive and problematic questions.
How Are We Smart?
What does it mean to be intelligent? We now know that intelligence, far from being singular, innate and fixed, is in fact multifaceted and learnable. Flossie Chua shows that it’s much less important to measure intelligence than to understand how we can get it.
The Quest for Deeper Understanding
Education that focuses on factual recall leaves students without the skills they need to apply their knowledge. Tina Grotzer explains why depth of understanding is important and how it can be achieved.
Leveraging Culture with Ron Ritchhart
Reconsidering what schools are and what they aim to do has inspired the leader of Project Zero’s ‘Cultures of Thinking’ project to truly examine and understand what it is that creates the optimal conditions for learning. In this interview we learn more about what drives him.
Transferring Ownership of Learning
An important way to leverage the cultural forces of the classroom for learning is to find opportunities for meaningful interactions. Teachers Jeff Watson and Roger Winn show how they’re using the Cultures of Thinking framework to create community within the classroom.
Assessment Reimagined
What if there were an alternative to traditional notions of assessment and accountability that could change what ‘counts’ in the classroom? Mara Krechevsky and Tina Blythe show how Project Zero is rethinking assessment practices that foster deeper levels of learning and understanding.
Five Lessons Learned About Creativity
In the old days, creativity was an elusive concept that belonged only to a talented few. Now we know that it is not the work of a genius, but a distributed and participatory process that can be developed and learned. Edward Clapp shares what the research has taught us.
