A Comprehensive Approach to Personalized Learning
Whether you teach in a classroom, lead a homeschool, or design curriculum — this framework is meant to be used, adapted, and built upon. Explore the six pillars below and imagine what they could look like in your learning environment.
You know your child best. This framework puts that knowledge at the center. Read through to see how project-based learning, student agency, and social-emotional development come together for your family.
Great education doesn't happen in isolation. We're looking for mentors, specialists, and community partners who want to bring real-world learning to life. See how the framework connects learning to community.
Lifespace Education is a personalized learning approach designed to prepare students for thriving in an uncertain future. It can be implemented in homeschools, micro-schools, and traditional classroom settings.
In a world characterized by constant change, equipping children with adaptable skills matters more than transmitting fixed knowledge.
The Lifespace Concept: The term "lifespace" refers to the entirety of an individual's lived experience. Learning doesn't happen solely within classrooms but throughout all aspects of a student's life.
Students are their own primary teachers. Adults don't "give" students knowledge - they create conditions where students develop capacities through active engagement.
The Six Pillars
Lifespace was built from the ground up by asking one question:
"What does an education approach actually need to give our kids to thrive in a world we can't predict?"
Not what tradition says school should look like. Not what fits neatly into a schedule. What do children actually need? The research points to six things — and everything in this framework is built around them.
Critical thinking encompasses analysis (breaking down information), synthesis (combining diverse information into coherent understanding), inference (making informed predictions), and evaluation (making reasoned judgments).
Information literacy sits at the heart of critical thinking. Students explicitly learn to evaluate source credibility, distinguish fact from opinion, navigate digital information safely, recognize misinformation and manipulation, and use information responsibly.
Developed through academic discussions, project-based investigations, real-world contexts, and explicit instruction in critical thinking strategies.
Problem solving is the process of identifying challenges, generating potential solutions, implementing strategies, and iterating based on results. While critical thinking focuses on analysis, problem solving emphasizes action.
Students develop capacity to tackle novel problems independently - creativity, resourcefulness, resilience, and confidence to try, fail, learn, and try again.
Developed through project-based learning, design challenges, investigations and experiments, real-world application, and explicit instruction in problem-solving frameworks.
Foundational academic skills in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies that enable all other learning.
The Two-Hour Approach: Approximately two hours per day of dedicated, high-quality instruction and practice builds strong foundations efficiently without consuming the entire learning day.
Expression is the ability to take a powerful idea from your mind and make it real for others to perceive. It encompasses synthesis (bringing complex concepts together into coherent vision) and transmission (communicating that vision clearly).
Expression is measured by two criteria: the clarity and quality of the idea itself, and the effectiveness of its transmission to others. The modality doesn't matter - written, spoken, visual, performed, built, coded, or any other form.
Developed through project presentations, multi-modal expression opportunities, synthesis practice, iterative refinement, and tool fluency.
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is the foundation upon which all other learning rests. Students cannot engage in challenging academic work without emotional regulation, cannot learn from failure without resilience and growth mindset.
The five core SEL competencies:
Developed through explicit SEL lessons, relationship-based culture, restorative practices, growth mindset integration, and mindfulness practices.
Project Work occupies a unique position: it is both a competency students develop AND the primary vehicle through which all other learning happens.
As a competency, students learn to initiate and plan, conduct sustained inquiry, integrate multiple disciplines, manage setbacks and iterate, collaborate effectively, document and reflect, and bring work to completion.
As a vehicle, project work provides authentic contexts where critical thinking, problem solving, core competencies, expression, and SEL all come together in meaningful application.
Students receive 1-2+ hours daily dedicated to project work - extended investigations that integrate multiple disciplines through authentic questions and real challenges.
Those are the six things kids need. But how do you actually build them? We didn't choose methods because they're trendy or traditional — we looked at what the research says develops these capacities.
Five principles kept showing up.
Learning maps empower students to chart their own path through daily responsibilities. Adults set the destinations; students choose the route. This builds self-direction, time management, and goal-setting skills.
Connecting classroom lessons to real-world contexts makes learning tangible and engaging. Community partnerships, service learning, and authentic problems give students the "why" behind what they're learning.
Breaking down traditional subject silos, this principle unites science, math, and humanities into unified projects. This reflects the real-world nature of challenges and builds holistic understanding.
Unstructured play and guided exploration are crucial for developing innovation, problem-solving, and resilience. 1-2+ hours daily of free play builds emotional regulation, creativity, and intrinsic motivation.
Strong, supportive relationships between students, educators, and peers create a nurturing environment for long-term development. Restorative practices replace punishment with accountability and empathy.
What This Makes Possible
Self-directed, critical thinkers with information literacy skills and intrinsic motivation to learn anything.
Adaptable, creative, and resilient — equipped to navigate a world we can't predict.
Intellectual, social, emotional, physical, creative, and ethical growth in every dimension.
Built on Evidence
The complete framework includes over 200 scholarly citations validating project-based learning, social-emotional development, student agency, authentic assessment, restorative practices, play-based learning, and relationship-centered approaches.
We're not testing whether these approaches work — we're demonstrating that this integrated model can operate as a viable, scalable school design.
This page is the overview. The full framework document goes into all of it — research citations, implementation details, assessment rubrics, and more.
