I learned by figuring things out.
Now I help others find their way.
THE GUIDE I WOULD HAVE VALUED
Someone who could see where I was and point me in the right direction. Someone who would still leave room for me to work it out.
I valued my independence. A guide could have helped me spend less time stuck.
I was homeschooled throughout my school years. Learning to work through my own mistakes shaped the way I teach – and the kind of guidance I want students to have at Do Think.
Samuel Robert Dulaney · Founder, Do Think Education Co., Ltd.
A FAMILY OF EDUCATORS
Teaching was part of family life.
My parents, Penny and Paul, developed literacy methods in Taichung during the 1980s. Our family later opened a language school in Canada. I grew up around teaching and questions about how learning works.
I began teaching at fourteen, and it has remained part of my life for more than twenty-five years. That family history is one part of my approach. My own experience of learning independently is another.
BEFORE I WAS THE TEACHER
Getting it wrong was part of working it out.
From Grades 7 to 12, I worked without a tutor or teacher, working through everything on my own, often feeling isolated.
I grew up with encyclopedias, books, and an internet very different from the one we have now. I searched. I read. There was no AI to explain it to me. YouTube wasn’t what it is now. There was no one to guide me.
In maths, I would try each question first, circle the ones I couldn’t solve, and return to them later.
When I took a pretest, I reviewed my mistakes and returned to the text to find an example. I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.
Other times, I submitted my work to an invisible teacher. My mistakes were marked, and I studied his correct solution. I worked forward and backward through the steps, comparing them with my own, until I could see where my reasoning had gone off track.
At first my mistakes discouraged me. Then, I learned to break them down, and that right there became my best teacher.
Looking back, I needed a guide—someone to talk to, someone to understand why I was stuck, and someone to help me learn from my mistakes.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR MY TEACHING
First, show me your thinking.
When a student asks for an answer, I turn the question back to them:
“So… what is your answer?”
I encourage them to offer their best answer, even if it might be wrong. Their response gives us a starting point.
Listen to understand the student’s reasoning.
Question to help the student examine that reasoning.
Compare the student’s thinking with the correct solution.
The aim is not simply to give students the answer, but to guide them as they build understanding for themselves.
TWO MOMENTS FROM MY CLASSROOM
Sometimes, one small connection changes what a learner can do.
These two classroom moments show what I look for—and what I do—when someone gets stuck.
01 / A FIRST STEP IN READING
“I forgot.”
bad → bed
The middle sound changes.
A student recognized bad when I arranged the letter cards. When I showed her bed, she said she had forgotten it.
Her response showed me that she was searching for a word she had memorised. I showed her instead how to examine each letter and sound.
She began breaking the words down and reading them. The task became clearer because she now had a process she could use.
What mattered was helping her know what to do when the next word was unfamiliar.
02 / MAKING SENSE OF A PARAGRAPH
Finding the story inside the words.
Noun: dark blue square · Verb: red triangle
Another student was struggling to understand a short narrative. I asked them to mark the nouns with dark blue squares and the verbs with red triangles.
Next, I asked them to read only those words in the order they appeared. The result was rough and grammatically incomplete, but the people, things, and actions became easier to follow.
The student could then explain the story in their own words: Sam bought candy that tasted good and shared it with the students. They were happy.
The student had missed a noun—the focus of the story—and several verbs. We reviewed them together. That was when connections became clearer.
THE CONNECTION I KEEP LOOKING FOR
Each part has a purpose within the whole.
I look for connections between things. A sound helps form a word. A word has a role in a sentence. Sentences work together to carry an idea.
When something does not make sense, I ask: Where is the difficulty? What is missing? How do the parts fit together?
Studying civil engineering gave me another way to examine structures and the relationships between their parts. Journalism sharpened my attention to questions, precise language, and clear explanations.
These perspectives shape the way I teach: first, let’s focus on how parts work together; then we explain the whole. I developed this habit by examining my own mistakes.
EXPERIENCE THAT SHAPED MY JUDGEMENT
Lessons from classrooms and workplaces.
My teaching has ranged from first sounds and early reading to academic writing, teacher development, and adult communication.
At the National Taiwan Science Education Center, I developed bilingual science materials that connect language with hands-on discovery. Work with WEGO connected English together with other subjects and industry, while my work with teachers at FuDe Elementary focused on bilingual teaching.
I have also taught nursing-college students and professionals in finance and design. My experience at L&L Interior Design reinforced how clear communication matters in practice and design—especially when deadlines must be met, decisions explained, and people held accountable for the finished work.
The content changes. The process of learning does not.
WHY I OPENED DO THINK
A classroom can be a beginning.
I wanted to build an education hub: a place where the work could reach beyond the students in my classroom.
I want Do Think to grow through teacher development, thoughtful materials, and a wider learning community.
It starts with the work in front of me: understanding where a student is in their development, helping them find connections in what they are learning, and giving them room to become more independent.
What I value most is seeing students enjoy learning. I want to help more teachers create that experience.
What Do Think offers—and aims to grow:
Teacher development · Thoughtful materials · A wider learning community
COME AND MEET US
Let’s begin with the learner in front of us.
Tell us what you’re noticing. A free placement check gives us a chance to understand the learner and recommend a useful starting point.
Arrange a free placement check: discover@dothinkedu.com · +886 2 2877-1186