Design learning that makes students think harder with AI.
ThinkFlow helps educators design learning experiences where students question, verify, critique, reason and create with AI—without outsourcing the thinking.
The ThinkFlow Model
What thinking should remain human?
Identify the cognitive work learners need to perform themselves.
Human judgement • Metacognition • Cognitive engagement
Research Lens
Learners build understanding through the cognitive work they do themselves; AI literacy frameworks keep human judgement at the centre.
Where should productive intellectual friction occur?
Introduce something worth questioning, investigating, comparing or debating.
Productive struggle • Critical thinking • Inquiry
Research Lens
Well-designed difficulty — a misconception, conflicting evidence, an ambiguous problem — prompts the reasoning through which understanding develops.
What useful role should AI play?
Give AI a deliberate, bounded role that deepens rather than replaces thinking.
AI literacy • Human–AI interaction • Learner agency
Research Lens
Learners who understand, evaluate and then use AI interrogate its outputs actively rather than consuming them passively.
How will thinking become visible?
Build the final learning experience and capture evidence of reasoning, judgement and change in understanding.
Creation • Reflection • Evidence of thinking
Research Lens
Making, explaining and reflecting turn invisible reasoning into evidence — and iteration (tinker, create, shape) improves the design.
↻ Reflect → Refine → Rebuild
Informed by
Digital Promise
AI Literacy
Understand → Evaluate → Use
Human judgement remains central.
Explore the evidence →MIT RAISE / Day of AI
Active AI Literacy
Explore • Question • Create
Hands-on exploration, critical thinking and responsible AI use.
Explore the evidence →Stanford AI Tinkery
Learning Through Experimentation
Play & Tinker → Create → Shape What's Next
Experiment, make, playtest, reflect, iterate.
Explore the evidence →Learning Sciences
Thinking & Learning
Metacognition • Productive Struggle
Metacognition • Productive Struggle • Critical Thinking • Cognitive Engagement
Explore the evidence →Six Ways to Make AI a Thinking Partner
Choose a workflow that matches the thinking you want learners to do.
Compare & Challenge
Compare • Analyse • Judge
Students examine competing AI responses and determine which is stronger.
Evidence Detective
Verify • Analyse • Evaluate
Students investigate AI-generated claims rather than accepting them at face value.
Socratic AI
Question • Reason • Explain
AI asks questions and counter-questions instead of simply providing answers.
Bias Hunter
Interrogate • Perspective • Evaluate
Students identify assumptions, missing perspectives and potential bias.
Critique → Revise
Critique • Improve • Justify
Students diagnose weaknesses in AI-generated work and improve it.
Human → AI → Human
Think • Compare • Decide
Students think independently before AI enters the process.
This workflow protects initial independent thinking before students encounter AI-generated perspectives.
Workshop Mode