A Proposal For Using Lego Serious Play in Education
A Proposal For Using Lego Serious Play in Education
A Proposal For Using Lego Serious Play in Education
net/publication/292835237
CITATIONS READS
10 3,905
3 authors:
Yeamduan Narangajavana
Universitat Jaume I
21 PUBLICATIONS 730 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Fernando J. Garrigos-Simon on 08 April 2016.
[email protected]
Editors
Marta Peris-Ortiz Fernando J. Garrigós-Simón
Departamento de Organización de Empresas Departamento de Organización de Empresas
Universitat Politècnica de València Universitat Politècnica de València
Valencia, Spain Valencia, Spain
[email protected]
Foreword
Teaching Innovation
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this publication.
Thanks to their dedication as they have provided a valuable and informative guide
on a subject that is extremely important for our institution.
Technological advances have led to a revolution in education, a revolution which
has caused a great many changes not only in the way we learn but also in the way
that teachers are able to teach their students. With this, we have also seen an impor-
tant change in the way that education is perceived. We are now constantly research-
ing and developing new teaching methodologies, which has radically changed the
way in which teachers now approach teaching.
Gone are the days where teachers can rely solely on the “chalk and talk” methods
of the past, they now have to evolve. In this book/publication, we can discover these
new ways of thinking and methods so that they can be put into practice and enhance
students learning experiences, as well as develop teaching skills across all subjects
and levels and in all kinds of institutions. This, in turn, leads to a constant improve-
ment in the quality of education.
Nowadays it is possible to obtain a degree or a master online; thanks to the devel-
opment of new applications, but is there more to innovation in teaching than tech-
nological advances? Do we all learn in the same way?
This publication considers development in all aspects of teaching and learning,
from technological advances to the development of moral and teamwork competen-
cies to different types of activities that favour other types of learning such as practi-
cal activities.
Most importantly, thanks to the collaboration of our colleagues. You can now
learn how to put these innovations in teaching into practice in all types of learning
environments.
[email protected]
Contents
vii
[email protected]
viii Contents
Index.................................................................................................................. 149
[email protected]
Chapter 10
A Proposal for Using Lego Serious
Play in Education
Abstract The dynamics of our society is forcing change in the education system.
The knowledge students had to learn remained stable for long periods. And even
when that knowledge changed the learning frameworks remained. Nowadays, the
environment, what we know about any subject, and the stability of our knowledge are
constantly changing. This paper presents an attempt to find new learning methods,
with the objective of creating a process where students learn current models and
frames, while preparing them for change. We have worked with Lego© Serious
Play© over 12 months and it provides an alternative model of the way students learn
and the work of teachers. In this new process, the teacher becomes a facilitator and
consultant who prepares the learning journey and leads the process.
10.1 Introduction
As teachers, our starting point is usually near the Newtonian paradigm, where we
presume an ordered universe in our subject, and attempt to introduce this order into
our students’ brains. We know that this world is simply our perception, in fact the
perception shared by a group of people (academics) who spend their time trying to
perceive the subject and provide a coherent model of what we see. But our students
must be prepared for something different, according to Watkins et al. (2011:15):
“For past generations the Newtonian paradigm fitted nicely into the comfort zone
for most people. It is still hard for most of us to wrap our brains around such
[email protected]
100 J.O. Montesa-Andres et al.
q uestions as: ‘Is order essential to the structure of the universe or is it simply a prod-
uct of human perception?’.” If order is indeed simply a product of human percep-
tion, students must perceive this order, as the state of the art, and as a serious model
before they can understand the subject being taught.
Subjects we teach may remain unaltered during our students’ lifetimes. We can
look at previous changes in a subject, and imagine how that knowledge will change
in the future. The difficulty lies in trying to envision radical changes.
In view of the above, teachers therefore face a complex situation. With previous
paradigms, students had to learn the order created in a subject. But nowadays, we
need to prepare our students for more flexible situations, although the time avail-
able for each subject remains the same. We now have a clearer understanding of
disruptive science and the problems the people involved in scientific breakthroughs
had with their teachers when they were young. We also know that people who do
not accept previous perceptions (paradigms) of a subject have fewer problems
addressing new views.
Students need to be provided with first-hand experiences, make their own reflec-
tions, and then be shown the current knowledge. They must also be active in working
to understand their experiences and draw their own conclusions.
Our work focuses on knowledge management and learning organizations, and so
we approach the learning process from this point of view. Organizations are the context
in which our students are likely to work and indeed, where they will learn in the future.
10.2 T
heoretical Framework: Knowledge Management
and Learning Organizations
According to Hicks (1999), there are some formal learning situations, where indi-
viduals consciously “learn” and “study.” However, at other times learning is a spon-
taneous process (without any necessary deliberations or assessments) or occurs at
many levels and in many ways. Information or skills may be imparted quite explicitly
and at the same time the values and attitudes of the trainer will also be implicitly
communicated, or we may be learning “incidentally” at times, as we acquire, process
and remember information automatically.
According to March and Simon (1958), account must also be taken of the fact
that people cannot heed and listen to everything in the environment, as the sensorial
system has various physical limits that make our attention and perception selective.
The way we categorize and organize information is based on a wide variety of
factors, including the present situation, our mood and emotional state and also our
previous experiences of the same or similar event. In addition, humans make a
number of inferences that, if true enable us to save time and speed up the process,
they also lead to distortions and inadequacies. This fact influences students’ concep-
tions of reality and also their behaviors in the classroom.
In order to understand the learning process, we have to focus on knowledge itself
and ways to improve it. In this vein, Polanyi (1966) established the difference
between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, a distinction that has been used
[email protected]
10 A Proposal for Using Lego Serious Play in Education 101
[email protected]
102 J.O. Montesa-Andres et al.
[email protected]
10 A Proposal for Using Lego Serious Play in Education 103
important as they can distort our vision, and also our behaviors. These models
are tacit and invisible.
(c) Shared vision: stresses the relevance of a mutual purpose. The creation of a
shared vision helps to create a sense of belonging and consequently, commit-
ment. Teachers need time, attention and strategy to develop this discipline.
(d) Team learning: a discipline of group interaction, which concentrates on
a group’s collective potential. People work well when they allow others to
work well. There is an alignment and they function as a whole. Teams must
transform their collective thinking, through techniques like dialogue and
skillful discussion.
(e) System thinking: the ability to approach the world with a wide-angle lens, to
see how our actions relate to other areas of the same activity; focusing on
feedback loop behavior and the complex characteristics of a system.
The term “Serious Play” is used with different meanings, always far removed from
leisure and near to business, industry or war, as Roger Smith proposes in INTSEC
2009 (tr. 4/81). The most general definition we found was: “games that do not have
entertainment, enjoyment or fun as their primary purpose” (Michael and Chen 2005).
Some authors include serious games as a subset of video games, as Minhua Ma et al.
(2011:9) propose in “Innovations in Serious Games for Future Learning,” when they
write: “The recent emergence of serious games as a branch of video games …”
“Lego Serious Play” (LSP) falls within Michel and Chen’s definition, but is closer
to face-to-face interaction between people and physical objects than videogames.
According to Rasmunssen in “The Science of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY,” “SERIOUS
PLAY is a concept developed over several years by Executive Discovery, a member of
the LEGO Group. It emerged out of the research and experience of a number of aca-
demics and practitioners searching for more effective ways to meet the increasingly
complex and challenging demands of the business world.” This definition contextual-
izes the tool, but in order to understand the tool, Rasmunssen clarifies “what” LSP
delivers to users: “SERIOUS PLAY is our name for the process we have developed to
bring the creativity, the exuberance, and the inspiration of play to the serious concerns
of adults in the business world.” Both definitions are obviously commercial messages,
but we (along with other universities, companies and governments) are interested in
the fact that this tool is used to improve companies, as reported in the “White Paper on
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® a state of the art of its applications in Europe.”
We start by analyzing LSP in order to understand and break it down into its dif-
ferent components, in order to use them in the learning process. We experienced
LSP in several sessions provided by an LSP facilitator to observe the process and
its dynamics.
These LSP sessions appear to be an evolution of the exercises proposed by Michalko
in “Thinkertoys”, and similar to the “Gamestorming” proposed by Gray et al.
[email protected]
104 J.O. Montesa-Andres et al.
[email protected]
10 A Proposal for Using Lego Serious Play in Education 105
4. The fourth step is that people get a chance to connect their newly gained knowl-
edge to new explorations they would want to pursue.
10.4 Proposal
[email protected]
106 J.O. Montesa-Andres et al.
The next step is when students combine their knowledge, creating a landscape of
what they are talking about (the sharable area is completed). Again the teacher takes
the opportunity to order their knowledge. The teacher usually has a landscape model
(a Business Model Canvas, a Conceptual map, or a Mind map) and students do not
usually question the model. At this stage, students put their creations on a surface,
or just parts of their creations, because they believe that other students express a
concept in a better way; they are free to select as a team the items to represent the
acquired knowledge. More than that, they feel comfortable in this atmosphere of
collaboration and they talk about the model. As the teacher proposes the framework
for the LEGOs, sometimes students start looking at certain “empty spaces” in the
landscape, and they expect something to cover them. This anticipation activates
questions about the subject they can ask to improve their own knowledge and other
students’ knowledge too. With the landscape the teacher can ask questions and stu-
dents can answer easily due to the items on the table, recalling the concepts and
relations modeled as strings or lines connecting the concepts. Although the process
seems to be clearly specified, the teacher needs extra material and other types of
activities in order to address the covered area because some students want to work
more deeply with certain concepts.
Students usually enjoy these learning processes; they play and feel free to express
their points of view. When asked about the experience, curiously their replies are
similar to the responses when LSP is used in industry.
Students socialize their knowledge and themselves in the group, generating a
high level of satisfaction. Some students ask for this type of activities at the begin-
ning of the course in order to get to know the other students. Fellowship increases.
When you use these techniques students use their hands (constructing with
Lego©), become creative, make up and tell stories, open their minds to the question
more freely, they feel part of a team, and if the final landscape is modeled as a sys-
tem, they gain a systemic view of the knowledge. When you propose a way of
completing the knowledge they are ready to take it on board.
References
[email protected]
10 A Proposal for Using Lego Serious Play in Education 107
Hicks L (1999) The nature of learning. In: Mullins LJ (ed) Management and organizational behaviour,
5th edn. Pitman, London, pp 344–375. Financial Times
Kidd JB (2001) Discovering inter-cultural perceptual differences in MNEs. J Manag Psychol
16(2):106–126
Ma M, Oikonomou A, Jain LC (2011) Serious games and edutainment applications. Springer,
Berlin
March JG, Simon HA (1958) Organizations. New York: Wiley
Michael D, Chen S (2005) Serious games: games that educate, train, and inform, 1st edn. Course
Technology PTR, USA. In “Origins of Serious Games”
Nonaka I, Takeuchi H (1995) The knowledge-creating company. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Pedler M, Burgoyne J, Boydell T (1991) The learning company: a strategy for sustainable develop-
ment. McGraw-Hill, London
Polanyi M (1966) The tacit dimension. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London
Senge P (1990) The fifth discipline, the art and practice of the learning organisation. Random
House, London
Senge P, Kleiner A, Roberts C, Ross R, Roth G, Smith B (1999) The dance of change: the chal-
lenges of sustaining momentum in learning organizations. A fifth discipline resource. Nicholas
Brealey, London
Watkins JM, Mohr BJ, Ralph K (2011) Appreciative inquiry: change at the speed of imagination,
2nd edn. Pfeiffer, San Francisco
[email protected]
View publication stats