Research
Project Zero was founded in 1967. It explored topics in education. Some of the topics explored in relation to Project Zero were deep thinking, creativity, ethics, and intelligence.
Project Zero was founded in 1967 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education by the philosopher Nelson Goodman. What Goodman did was challenge those who thought the linguistic and logical symbol systems had priority over the expressive and communicative systems. Goodman formulated a taxonomy of the major symbol systems that are utilized by human beings (Gardner,1993). Goodman discusses symbols that are of importance to the arts. The symbols are musical, poetic, gestural, and visual graphic. He also discusses the modes of symbolization such as representation, expression, metaphor, and multiple meanings. Many became interested in Goodman's work, his point of view, and his "theory of symbols" which was adopted as a cognitive point of view.
In the 1970's, Howard Gardner and David Perkins became the leaders in the Project Zero effort. The project became fully devoted to psychological issues. Perkins was responsible for directing a "Cognitive Skills Group" where the primary interest was in the perceptual and cognitive capacities of adults, whereas Gardner directed a "Developmental Group", where the focus was on the development of symbol-using skills in normal and gifted children. More than half the studies in which Gardner and Perkins were involved in entail "more-or-less direct efforts to apply analyses and insights to programs in schools, ranging from preschool to the college level. Project Zero has involved over a hundred researchers. Contributions to this project range from the fields of the humanities to the fields of the social sciences. The works of Garner and his colleagues have been reviewed collectively.
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