Developing the capacity to think, learn and adapt.

Knowing the content does not always mean knowing how to use it. In classrooms and workplaces, people need to connect information, consider alternatives and adapt when a familiar approach no longer works. Looking closely at their reasoning helps educators and trainers decide where to focus support.

Our own findings show what sits underneath. Across ten questions, 73% of a Primary 5 level had difficulty identifying the problem before any calculation went wrong. Explore the school project.

As AI changes how we study and work, people still need to question information, evaluate an answer and exercise their own judgement. Research on cognitive offloading examines what happens when we delegate parts of our thinking to external tools.

Adults

In a study of 666 people, more frequent AI use went with weaker critical thinking, and offloading explained the link (Gerlich, Societies, 2025). Knowledge workers who trusted AI more reported doing less critical thinking (Lee et al., Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon, CHI 2025).

Students

In a field experiment with nearly 1,000 high school students, those who practised maths with an unrestricted chatbot scored 17% lower in the exam than students with no chatbot. A version built to make students think for themselves removed the harm (Bastani et al., PNAS, 2025). University students who used ChatGPT checked and planned their own work less, which the researchers called metacognitive laziness (Fan et al., British Journal of Educational Technology, 2025).

Policy

The OECD concludes that AI which does the work for students can raise their performance without real learning (OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026).

We work to protect and build the deep thinking that people can still develop.

Minds can change. Professor Reuven Feuerstein called this structural cognitive modifiability: with the right mediation, the way a person thinks can change, at any age (Feuerstein Institute). Our programmes draw on that idea through guided practice and opportunities to apply thinking in new situations.

Our programmes develop thinking through human guidance and practice. Alongside them, we are developing OpenMind to help educators and trainers examine learners’ reasoning, recognise patterns and plan the next step.

Schools and organisations own their learners' data. How we handle data.

We work with school and organisational partners to understand their priorities and shape the intervention. FIE-certified trainers guide thinking through Feuerstein’s Mediated Learning Experience, with opportunities to apply it in the learner’s own context.

Our past projects include work with an MOE primary school, SUSS and Petra Christian University. Explore our past projects.