Edward P. Clapp, Ed.D.

Edward P. Clapp is a research associate at Project Zero where he is a member of the core team working on the Agency by Design initiative. He is also a core member of the Creating Communities of Innovation initiative, which is an action research study geared toward developing educational innovations among a network of schools in the United Arab Emirates. Edward’s current research interests include creativity and innovation, maker-centered learning, design thinking, and contemporary approaches to arts teaching and learning. In addition to his work as an educational researcher, Edward is also a lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and co-instructor (with Jennifer Oxman Ryan) of the online course Thinking and Learning in the Maker-Centered Classroom. His most recent book, Participatory Creativity: Introducing Access and Equity to the Creative Classroom, was published in 2016 by Routledge.

Jessica Ross

Jessica Ross is a researcher and project manager for the Agency by Design research project. Previously, Jessica taught Grades 5–8 humanities for 10 years, where she integrated Project Zero frameworks including Artful Thinking and Teaching for Understanding into her classroom practice. She has a background in education, history, and writing. Jessica has collaborated with schools, school districts, and museums to integrate frameworks like Artful and Visible Thinking, along with interdisciplinary-focused curriculum design, into their programs. She is currently an education coordinator of the Project Zero Classroom Institute and a teaching fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Jennifer O. Ryan

Jennifer O. Ryan is a researcher and project manager for the Pedagogy of Play initiative—a collaboration between Project Zero, the International School of Billund (Denmark), and LEGO Foundation that is exploring how play can assume a central role in schools. She is former project manager for Agency by Design and previously worked on several other projects, including Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve It; and the Good Play project, focusing on the ethical dimension of young people’s online activities. Jennifer’s research interests include arts and maker education, school–community partnerships, youth empowerment, and young people’s engagement with digital media. She is co-instructor (with Edward P. Clapp) of the online course Thinking and Learning in the Maker-Centered Classroom. She has presented her research in numerous presentations and publications. Jennifer is a former education chair and commissioner for the Maine Arts Commission and has assumed advisory and board roles for other nonprofit institutions. She has a background in education, art history, museum education and, prior to joining Project Zero, held educational leadership positions in arts organizations.

Shari Tishman, Ed.D.

Shari Tishman is a lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education and a senior research associate at Harvard Project Zero, where she recently served as director. Her research focuses on the development of thinking and understanding, the role of close observation in learning, and learning in and through the arts. She currently codirects Agency by Design, and also Out of Eden Learn, an online learning community that is currently being used in over 1200 classrooms worldwide and is linked to National Geographic journalist Paul Salopek’s seven-year walk around the world. Past notable projects include Visible Thinking, a dispositional approach to teaching thinking that foregrounds the use of thinking routines and the documentation of student thinking, and Artful Thinking, a related approach that emphasizes the development of thinking dispositions through looking at art. The author of numerous articles and books, her forthcoming book, The Power of Slow Looking, will be published in 2017 by Routledge.