Think, Do, Create

Think, Do, Create is the structure SFBU uses to turn an idea into a lesson, a unit or a whole course. Students meet and process an idea, work with it, and then make something that did not exist before.

Why SFBU uses it

PERS describes what a learning experience should feel like. Think, Do, Create is the framework that makes such an experience buildable. It is the smallest design unit CEPI has found that still carries all four PERS dimensions. It works for a session, a unit and a whole course.

Learning often stalls at understanding. A student can explain a concept and pass the examination, and still be unable to use the idea in a real setting. Alfred North Whitehead called these inert ideas in 1929. Later research finds that students learn more when they construct and interact with material (Chi and Wylie, 2014).

In an SFBU classroom

Two students map how AI use is growing, shifting sticky notes around and drawing the connections as they go.

The three phases

Think

Students meet an idea and process it, through reading, lecture, discussion and their own questions.

Do

They work with the idea through action or application, and find out what it means in a real setting.

Create

They produce something that did not exist before they met the idea.

The three phases can run inside a single class or across several weeks. One idea is followed through all three, and the unit ends with something students have made.

Examples across disciplines

In psychology, students read theories of cognitive bias, observe decision-making in a real setting, then design an intervention and present it for critique. In business, they study market entry failures, interview a professional who lived through one, then pitch a revised proposal to a panel. In computer science, they analyze real systems for bias and test a model with prompts designed to surface it. Then they produce an ethical checklist for one deployment context. In engineering, they study structural cases, run a load analysis to the point of failure, then redesign with one added constraint and present the trade-offs.

CEPI works with faculty to mark each week of a semester as Think, Do or Create and check the balance. Course Design lists this check as the third of its six decisions, The Unit Structure.

Take this with you

Three actions for this week

Mark one week’s activities T, D or C.

Reading, lecture and discussion are Think. Applying, testing and interviewing are Do. Producing something new is Create. An empty column shows where to redesign.
The Think, Do, Create workshop sheets walk a whole topic through the three steps on two A3 pages.

End one unit with something made.

A checklist for a named context, a pitch to a panel, a redesign with one added constraint. In the engineering example, students analyze to failure, then rebuild with a new limit and present the trade-offs.

Put the question before the content.

Open with the case, the failure or the puzzle, and introduce the framework as the tool that explains it.

One question to keep

What will students have made by the end of this unit that did not exist before it?

Download the Faculty Guidebook

The full argument, worked examples and sources. PDF.

The PERS Framework

Teaching with AI