Like last year’s WISSIT, we’ll offer simultaneous but separate in-person and virtual tracks! Registration and more details to come in early 2023.

At WISSIT, educators explore the research coming out of Project Zero (PZ)–an innovative leader in the domains of teaching and learning for over 50 years, located in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Each year, we learn with and from PZ researchers and a diverse faculty of outstanding educators from the Washington, DC, region.

WISSIT introduces PZ ideas and pedagogical tools and strategies and encourages ways to adapt them to participants’ own context.

The institute explores four key themes: 

(1) Building a Culture of Thinking: How do we develop dispositions that lead to thoughtful learning across school subjects, and beyond? How do we effectively create a culture of thinking, in classrooms and schools, that supports all learners?

(2) Learning Deeply with Museum Resources: What can we–educators and students–learn from objects, artworks and archival materials to deepen our understanding of, and engagement with, the curriculum? How can we leverage the unique museum resources that exist in our community?

(3) Encouraging Playful Learning, Creativity & a “Maker” Mindset: In response to the challenging times we are living in, how can play, creativity and making re-ignite joy in learning? How do they help us to be attuned to nuance?

(4) Fostering Civic Agency in Young People: How do we guide students to develop the capacity and desire to act in positive ways to improve the world around them? How do we lift up young people’s voices and ideas?

In 2023, our keynote speakers at the morning plenary sessions will feature Ron Ritchhart, whose work on creating cultures of thinking has resonated with educators worldwide and who has delivered the opening keynote for the last nine years; Jessica Ross, a Project Zero researcher in arts-integration and maker-centered learning who has returned to the classroom; and a wide range of local PZ practitioners.

https://www.pdcollaborative.org/initiatives/wissit/