By Dr Alexandra Okada, Researcher in Global Education, AI and Sustainable Futures, The Open University · UK
A conversation with David Perkins at Harvard’s Project Zero reveals how the REACH framework — built on the mindsets of Explorer, Investigator and Innovator — offers a powerful new lens for designing learning that is passionate, purposeful and transformative.
“It’s not something you just do — like exploring. It’s something you are: an explorer adopting a certain mindset toward the world.” — David Perkins
During a visit to Harvard’s Project Zero, Dr Okada spoke with Professor Perkins about REACH — a framework built on three learning mindsets: Explorer, Investigator and Innovator. Perkins argues that too much schooling stops at “learn it and pass the test,” missing the passionate engagement that makes learning last. For Okada, this resonates beyond the classroom: in higher education, research projects are increasingly fuelled by funders’ agendas and ever more competitive grant cycles — creating a similar risk of losing the passionate commitment for the lifeworthy transformation that research should lead. The conversation revealed striking alignments with the CARE–KNOW–DO framework at the heart of the METEOR project, and explored whether AI could help sustain these deeper models of learning and research impact at scale.
Introduction
What does it mean to truly understand something? Not just to recall it, but to act on it, connect it to the world, and keep asking questions? These are the questions that have driven the work of David Perkins and his colleagues at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education — and they feel more urgent than ever as we reimagine education for sustainable futures.
It was a privilege to visit Harvard and speak with David, whose decades of work on thinking, learning, and understanding have shaped education systems worldwide. At the heart of our discussion was a framework called REACH — and the profound idea that deeper learning needs not just skills, but mindsets.
What is REACH?
REACH ties thinking strategies to learning attitudes — what David calls mindsets: ways of engaging with the world framed not as activities, but as identities. There are three core personas:
| Persona | Core orientation | Key questions |
|---|---|---|
| 🧭 Explorer | Mapping complexity | Zoom in (details & structure) · Zoom out (systemic connections) · Zoom through time (how has this changed, where is it going?) |
| 🔬 Investigator | Focusing on a specific issue | What is the question? · What is the evidence? · What conclusions can you reach? |
| 💡 Innovator | Seeking application | What can be done with this — now, or in my community? |
The distinction between exploring and being an Explorer is subtle but deeply significant. Personas are more than verbs — they are ways of inhabiting a role, of bringing curiosity and passion to learning itself.
The problem with going through the motions
One of David’s sharpest observations was about the missing “passionate side” of thinking and learning. Too much schooling guides students toward one destination: learn it, pass the test, write the essay. The Innovator mindset in REACH pushes against this — asking learners what can be done with what they are learning, in their community, in their life, even now.
“One of the problems with a lot of schooling is that there’s nothing much you’re guided to do with what you’re learning — other than learn it and pass the test. The whole point of the innovator role is to encourage learners to think in terms of what can be done now, or nowish, or in my community.”
— David Perkins, Project Zero, Harvard
How REACH connects to CARE–KNOW–DO
Listening to David, I was struck by how deeply REACH resonates with the CARE–KNOW–DO framework (Okada & Gray, 2023) that underpins our work in the METEOR project and across UNESCO UNITWIN AI Unplugged.
| CARE–KNOW–DO | Focus | Connection to REACH |
|---|---|---|
| CARE | Values & motivation | Aligns with REACH’s emphasis on mindsets and the passionate engagement of Explorer and Innovator personas |
| KNOW | Understanding & inquiry | Mirrors the Investigator — evidence, reasoning, and reaching well-grounded conclusions |
| DO | Action & application | Directly echoes the Innovator — turning learning into real-world action in community and context |
Both frameworks share a conviction: that education must move learners beyond passive knowledge consumption toward active, values-driven engagement with the world. Together, they offer a powerful lens for designing learning experiences that are not only intellectually rigorous but genuinely transformative.
Can AI help sustain deeper learning?
David raised a question that resonates strongly with our METEOR work: could AI act as a practical scaffold — not a coach exactly, but a support system — that makes sustaining deeper models of learning more manageable at scale? Historically, technology has made things possible “a lot rather than only once in a while.”
Could AI do the same for pedagogical innovation?
This is not a solved question. But it is exactly the kind of intriguingly puzzling frontier David encourages us to pursue — resisting the obvious models that do not work, and asking: how else can the game be played? It is a question we are actively exploring through the METEOR project’s work on AI tools for mapping knowledge for sustainability.
Situating learners in a larger story
We also discussed intrinsic motivation — particularly for subjects that do not connect immediately to students’ daily lives. David’s insight was elegant: even abstract knowledge can have magnetism when it situates us in a larger story. Understanding dinosaurs, mammoths, deep time — these are not just facts. They are chapters in a story that includes us.
For those of us working at the intersection of education, AI, and sustainability, this feels like an invitation: to help learners see themselves as part of something bigger, and to design learning that makes that story visible.
A takeaway for the METEOR project
Visiting Project Zero reminded me why frameworks like CARE–KNOW–DO and models like REACH matter so deeply. They are not just tools — they are invitations to become something: a curious Explorer, a rigorous Investigator, a creative Innovator. As we continue mapping knowledge for sustainability with AI tools in METEOR, that shift from doing to being feels like one of the most important design challenges we face.
Thank you, David — for a conversation full of ideas, warmth, and the occasional story about coasting down a mountain road in Cape Town with the engine off. Sometimes you do need to turn off the engine for a while.
🎧 Further listening: Thinkability podcast
David Perkins and Shari Tishman host Thinkability — a podcast exploring thinking skills, learning dispositions, and education for understanding. New episodes are on the way. Search Thinkability wherever you listen to podcasts.
References
Okada, A., & Gray, S. (2023). CARE–KNOW–DO: A framework for responsible AI-mediated learning. Open Research Europe.
Perkins, D. (2014). Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World. Jossey-Bass.
Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education: https://pz.harvard.edu
This post is part of the METEOR Project blog series on AI tools and knowledge mapping for sustainability. The METEOR project is funded by the European Commission under Horizon Europe.