Core framework · Years 1–13 · Any subject · Field-Based STEM · Tony Jones
The most agreeable tool in your classroom is not the most helpful one. When a student asks AI whether their position is right, the answer is almost always yes. The task design has to create the challenge that the tool will not.
1Commit your position first
2Name your own weakness
3Investigate and compare
4Submit the full trace
Strategy — Friction Framing and Position First
Present the inquiry question. Students write their initial position using only what they already know or believe. Allow five minutes. No tools, no resources, no peer discussion at this stage.
Students name one reason their initial position might be wrong. This is the friction step. It must be completed before any tool or resource is opened.
Students commit in writing: accept the challenge and plan to revise, or reject it with a specific reason. Both choices are valid. The commitment statement goes with the initial position.
Open the research or drafting phase, including any permitted tools. Students investigate with their commitment statement visible to them.
Before submission, students complete a Position Comparison of two to four sentences: what changed, what stayed the same, what drove any shift.
Collect the initial position, the friction response, and the Position Comparison alongside the final work. Assess the package, not just the product.
Year-Band Practice
Years 1–3Draw or dictate what you think before we find out. Circle one part you are not sure about. This is your position.
Years 4–6Write your prediction and one reason it might be wrong before any research opens. The reason does not have to be correct — it has to be honest.
Years 7–8Complete the friction step in writing. Your commitment statement goes with your initial position before the research phase opens.
Years 9–10Use the friction step to surface the assumption your argument is resting on. Name it explicitly before you begin investigating.
Years 11–13The Position Comparison is assessed alongside the final work. Name the mechanism of change, not just that your thinking shifted.
Implementation Notes
Decision checkpointThe friction step must be completed before any tool or resource is opened. If students are already researching when they name their weakness, the value of the exercise is largely lost.
Teacher judgement noteStudents who cannot name a weakness in their initial position have usually not formed a genuine position. Use this as a teaching moment rather than a compliance check.
Related frameworksPosition First Protocol · Evaluation Gate · Same Prompt, Two Outputs
