The method · 8 years of refinement

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."

— John Dewey

A method is not a list of activities.
It is an architecture of learning.

Eight years of designing, measuring and iterating experiences in real institutions distilled one thing: what makes an experience transformative is not the activities — it is the invisible structure that holds them. This is that structure. And it ends up being yours.

The four pillars

Everything that happens in BeChallenge rests on four verbs

They are not stages of a process: they are the foundations running through every experience, whether a challenge, a project, a case or a hackathon.

01

Investigate

Curiosity and critical analysis

Inquire before opining. Each student explores the problem individually — data, disciplines, perspectives — and joins the team with their own point of view. No one rides as a passenger.

02

Connect

Systems thinking

See the system, not the parts. Understand how a decision in one place affects the rest, anticipate consequences and design solutions that consider the whole — the skill that separates those who solve exercises from those who solve real problems.

03

Co-create

Collaboration that leaves a trace

Knowledge is built in dialogue. Teams where every contribution is visible and traceable: you negotiate, iterate, lead — and there is a record of who contributed what.

04

Evaluate

From performance to development

Assessing is not measuring at the end: it is a continuous process of reflection and improvement. Self, peers, teachers and external actors — 360° — turned into evidence of development, not into a grade.

The journey

This is what a full experience looks like

The 7-phase reference sequence. Every phase closes with metacognition (what did I learn and how?) and assessment (what evidence do I leave?) — learning consolidates along the way, it is not examined at the end.

Click each phase to see what happens inside

  1. 1

    Individual discovery: each student investigates, reflects and shares their perceptions before forming a team. This is where free-riding dies.

    Investigate Reflect Share perceptions
  2. 2

    Teams form with perspectives already built. Each member identifies strengths and weaknesses, takes on a role and commits to the group.

    Identify strengths and weaknesses Take on a role Commit
  3. 3

    Empathise with those who live the problem and co-create solutions. Divergent thinking with design thinking techniques.

    Empathise Co-create
  4. 4

    Teachers and external actors — companies, experts, community — enter the process while the course can still change, not when everything is already decided.

    Receive external perspective Iterate collaboratively
  5. 5

    Ideas become tangible: design, test against reality and communicate. Failure here is cheap and teaches.

    Design Test Communicate
  6. 6

    Solutions are showcased and selected against defined, transparent criteria. Defending your own work in front of others is also learning.

    Showcase Voting criteria Selection
  7. 7

    360° closing: transversal and specific skills assessed from every angle, plus the evaluation of the experience itself. Everything becomes graduate profile evidence.

    360° skills Experience evaluation

🚀 Transformative impact

The outcome is not a deliverable: it is a student who knows what they developed, how they developed it — and can prove it.

An elastic method

7, 5 or 3 phases — same architecture

Depth adapts to time and context without sacrificing the invariants: individual discovery, metacognition and assessment in every phase.

7 phases The full cycle

From discovery to evaluation, with feedback and voting as phases of their own. For deep, multi-week experiences.

5 phases Feedback built in

Feedback stops being a stage and becomes a constant in every phase. For regular course rhythms.

3 phases The essentials

Team, prototyping and selection. For intensive formats: Challenge Weeks, hackathons, themed weeks.

On the shoulders of giants

None of this is improvised

Every piece of the method is backed by decades of learning sciences research. The synthesis — and eight years of iteration with real institutions — is ours.

Kolb's cycle

Experience → reflection → conceptualisation → experimentation. The backbone of every phase sequence.

Dewey and learning by doing

Experience as the core of education — not as a complement to theory.

Social constructivism

Vygotsky: knowledge is built through interaction. Hence teams, dialogue and external feedback.

Design and Systems Thinking

Empathy and iteration to create; systems thinking to understand consequences and design sustainable solutions.

Metacognition

Learning to observe your own learning. Reflection questions at the close of each phase — awareness of progress and process.

Assessment for development

360°, rubrics and continuous feedback oriented towards growth, not ranking.

And everything leaves a trace

From method to evidence

Every metacognition checkpoint, every 360° assessment, every traceable contribution feeds your institution's graduate profile. The method does not just make learning happen: it makes it demonstrable — to students, accreditors and employers.

See how evidence works
The part no one else does

We don't sell you our method. We co-create yours.

This architecture — pillars, phases, metacognition, 360° — is the starting point, not the final product. With each institution we design their own sequence and their own activities per methodology, aligned with their educational model and graduate profile. The platform executes it, scales it and evidences it.

01

Your model

We start from what your institution already declares: its educational model and graduate profile.

02

Your method

We co-design your own sequences and activities for each methodology — with your teaching staff, not behind their backs.

03

Your evidence

Every experience runs your method and leaves evidence comparable by student, cohort and program.

Create your institution's method Live it first in a Challenge Week