At Unfold Learning, we’ve pioneered strategies for making learning more durable, more sustainable, and more engaging for teachers and learners at every level. Our goal is to make project-based learning and learning-by-making easy and accessible—even if you’ve never tried teaching that way before. 

 

Although applied learning dominates the majority of the learning that people do in their families, communities, cultures, trades, and pastimes, this form of learning is less common in ‘formal’ learning environments like schools. Unfold Learning can help with that.

More than a century of learning theorists from John Dewey and Maria Montessori to Seymour Papert and Barbara Rogoff have argued in favour of learning-by-making, and modern neuroscience backs them up. People of all ages and backgrounds learn better when they use what they’re learning to explore, apply, and create. Our Follow / Tinker / Make / Share (FTMS) framework guides learners as they develop and practise their skills and knowledge, making tangible objects that allow them to test, solidify, and demonstrate their growing understanding and abilities. Instead of the drone of abstract, information-centric homework and standardised tests, FTMS emphasises the skills necessary for construction and reconstruction. It helps teachers and learners leverage tools and approaches that encourage more than the transmission and consumption of information. And as for those standardised tests learners need to pass? When they’ve used what they’re learning for making, they’re actually more likely to succeed on them – not because they’ve memorised, drilled, and crammed, but because they’ve learned more deeply. Learning-by-making isn’t something teachers should save for after learners have memorised ‘the basics’: it’s the way to make the basics – and everything else – more memorable and more meaningful.

 

Many teachers are trained and hired for our ability to transmit information about our particular subject or discipline. We often don’t have much practice in applying what we know to projects and learning-by-making, so asking us to design a learning environment based mostly around projects and project management can feel unfamiliar and intimidating. Unfold Learning can help with that.

As teachers with decades of classroom teaching experience, we understand how challenging it can be to try a new learning approach – even one that seems like it might be helpful. Navigating the needs and expectations of learners, colleagues, and administrators can feel daunting, but our frameworks, support materials, and coaching can help. Since knowing where to start with project-based learning and developing a culture of learning-by-making may worry some teachers, we designed the FTMS framework not only to guide learners, but also to build in the supports and structures teachers need. We don’t plunge you into the deep end and leave; we’ll help as much as you’d like us to until you’re ready to swim on your own.

 

Teachers have been doing the lecture/review/test approach for a very long time, and it’s always seemed to work fine. However, lately teachers have begun to face some serious challenges. AI and a host of digital tools are poking holes in the systems and approaches we’ve always used, and that can make it difficult to know how to move forward or what to try. Unfold Learning can help with that.

The reason for embracing learning-by-making has nothing to do with fads or fashions, but everything to do with a fundamental change in the way information is created and disseminated. When information was confined to a limited number of controlled and vetted channels and when people could mostly trust the information that came through those channels, it made sense to emphasise behaviours of informational trust: transmission, absorption, and replication. However, in today’s digital landscape, information flows through a vast number of channels, not all of which are trustworthy. AI offers powerful tools, but it can hallucinate and make things up. Bad actors and trolls are pushing all sorts of false information. And digital and social media helps these spread faster and faster. This means we need learners – and citizens – who are far more discerning. Learners need to develop the wisdom to distinguish between genuine and false information and to cultivate the skills for discovery, evaluation, and integration so they can use information responsibly in their work. This means teachers can’t focus on mere transmission any longer. We need to design learning experiences where learners can hone the skills they’ll need long after school is over. The FTMS framework is designed to do just that.

 

People are increasingly realising that resources are limited and can’t be wasted. In many ways, today’s learners will inhabit a world characterised by less, not more. Teachers have traditionally focused on assignments and activities that consume resources without serving much purpose outside of school, so designing activities that serve the local community and create resources can seem especially challenging. Unfold Learning can help with that.

The move away from wanton consumption and a ‘throw-away’ mentality will create a greater need for creativity, collaboration, construction, and critical thinking – those ‘21st-century skills’ many have been calling for for more than a quarter of a century. In a world conscious of using less, properly prepared learners will ironically have more opportunities. They will have to invent all manner of new processes and products to fit into this new, constricted environment, and they’ll have to think about sustainability and durability more than ever before. Teachers, likewise, who embrace systems that sustain and nurture learners’ creativity, collaboration, and conservation will find themselves at the forefront of innovation, staking out new territories on which they and future teachers will build. The FTMS framework is designed to scaffold and support this kind of sustainable innovation, helping learners create projects that serve their communities and helping teachers guide and shape their efforts. FTMS is the gateway into tomorrow’s education.

 

The Follow / Tinker / Make / Share framework is designed with all of this in mind. It gives teachers and learners a structured approach that begins with the learning activities and experiences already familiar in schools, gradually facilitating development of a culture of learning-by-making. Each phase of the framework introduces activities and resources intentionally designed to help both learners and teachers develop new skills, perspectives, and ways of working.

Our services…

We work with schools, colleges, universities, polytechnics, governments, and education-oriented organisations and businesses at every level, providing consulting, support, guidance, and training. We deliver keynotes, presentations, and workshops focused on learning, learning theory, and learning design. We also provide short- and long-term services to help in all of the following areas:

• • • • Professional development
      • Project design
      • Group dynamics and teamwork
      • Reflection
      • Assessment
      • Action Research

Support Documents

We offer practical guides that combine concrete steps and procedures with learning theory and advice to help teachers bring new ideas to their practice. Here are some sample first pages…

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Using FTMS	Designing  &  Using  ‘Platform  Projects
Making Teamwork Work	Making Feedback Relevant
Making Reflection Relevant	Action Research for Educators