David Perkins received his Ph.D. in mathematics and artificial intelligence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970. As a graduate student he also was a founding member of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This research and development group was initially concerned with the psychology and philosophy of education in the arts, and later broadened greatly to encompass cognitive development and cognitive skills in both humanistic and scientific domains. David Perkins was Co-director of Project Zero for more than 25 years and is now Senior Co-director and a member of the steering committee. He is a senior professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
He has conducted long-term programs of research and development in the areas of teaching and learning for understanding, creativity, problem-solving and reasoning in the arts, sciences, and everyday life. He has also studied the role of educational technologies in teaching and learning, and has designed learning structures and strategies in organizations to facilitate personal and organizational understanding and intelligence. These inquiries reflect a conception of mind that emphasizes the interlocking relationships among thinking, learning, and understanding. The three depend deeply on one another. Meaningful learning aims at understanding and depends on thinking with and about what one is learning. Effective thinking in the subject matters and in general involves understanding the resources of the mind and learning to deploy them sensitively and systematically.
Selection courtesy of Harvard University.