Using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

and Multimedia Blogs to Stimulate Effective Reflective Practice

Sue Beckingham SFHEA | @suebecks | Sheffield Hallam UniversityCertified Facilitator of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

Computing Education Practice ConferenceUniversity of Dundee, January 11th 2017

Skills Development

An abundance of research has highlighted that communication is a skill that all

graduates need to demonstrate.

However this skill continues to be one that is challenging for many students.

“There is a disconnect between managers and recent graduates regarding their preparedness for employment

2016 Workforce-Skills Preparedness Report http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/job-skills

CBI (2016:49) The Right Combination: CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey 2016 http://www.cbi.org.uk/cbi-prod/assets/File/pdf/cbi-education-and-skills-survey2016.pdf

23% of employers not satisfied with communication skills

Skills Disconnect

• Overall, 44% of managers feel writing proficiency is the hard skill lacking the most among recent college graduates. Public speaking follows behind with 39% of managers feeling this way.

• Overall, 60% of managers feel critical thinking/ problem solving is the soft skill lacking the most among recent college graduates. The soft skills attention to detail (56%) and communication (46%) closely follow.

2016 Workforce-Skills Preparedness Report http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/job-skills

2016 Workforce-Skills Preparedness Report http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/job-skills

“Almost half the recruiters who took part in the research repeated their warnings

from previous years – that graduates who have had

no previous work experience at all are unlikely to be successful

during the selection process and have little or no chance of receiving a job

offer for their organisations’ graduate programmes.”

High Fliers (2016:6)

To apply for a placement or graduate job entails an interview. The students need to be confident communicators and able to articulate the skills they have developed.

Course Leader of a new Extended Degree in Computing

Blank canvas

An opportunity to build in new steps to help the students develop

their skills

1. LEGO SERIOUS PLAY

AimTo develop the students' communication skills and to explore effective teamwork and personal skills. Provide space to learn from each other.

2. MULTIMEDIA BLOGS

AimTo develop the students’ reflective writing skills through engaging with multimedia. Build confidence in articulating the skills developed.

WHY LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

“You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than you can from a lifetime of conversation” – Plato

Personal experience taking part in LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

workshops.

Now a trained facilitator in LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

having completed the official 4 day course.

Wanted to take an innovative approach.

WHAT IS LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

Participants in response to the facilitator's questions, build their own 3D LEGO models and these are then the focus for: • group discussion• knowledge sharing• problem solving and • decision making.

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

It is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem solving technique for groups.

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

core process

Pose the Question The facilitator asks the questions

Construction Everyone builds

Sharing All talk about what has been built

Reflection There is time to reflect and ask clarifying questions

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

4C Framework Connect: reflecting on experiences and

learning Construct: constructing of a model linked

to this Contemplate: verbalising and analysing

the model Continue: extending engagement through

sharing and commenting on models made by others

The theory behind LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

Constructionismx

This builds upon constructivism (Piaget) a theory that argues knowledge is not simply acquired but constructed into knowledge

structures based on the individual's experience in the world.

Constructionism (Papert) is a way of making formal, abstract ideas and relationships more concrete, more visual, more tangible, more

manipulative, and therefore more readily understandable by engaging in constructing a product.

"Better learning will not come from finding better ways for the teacher to instruct, but from giving the learners better opportunities to construct"

(Papert)

The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Kit

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

activities

Two examples: the students were asked to build a model in response to the questions.

1. Teamwork• What makes a good team?• What are the barriers that can disrupt good teamwork?

2. Skills• Think of a key strength, skill or attribute that you bring to your team. • Choose a skill that needs development. Why is this skill important?

Students are encouraged

to take photos for their blog

The students used their mobile phones to capture the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®

learning activities. The photos were used in their reflective blogs.

Reflective Blogs

The students are assessed on 40 competencies and are required to write a reflective blog post for each competency. This practice has encouraged them to consider beyond the descriptive of what they have done.

Scaffolding reflective practice

Reflection is difficult. The following need to be introduced and discussed:1. What reflection is2. How to do it3. Where to capture it4. Ways in which multimedia can be used

e.g. video, audio, mind map, photos

Scaffolding

“Scaffolding is any tool, procedure, or aspect of the learning

environment that is specifically engineered to assist learners in performing tasks for which they

would otherwise be unprepared.”Laffey et al 1998

passive and alienated

proactive and

engaged

Relatedness

Go write 500 words and reflect on your

learning

No structure

Provide context

Introduce a structure

Encourage multi media formats

OR

Scaffolding reflection

Scaffolding reflection

Signposting

Guided instructions

1. Reflect upon what skills you have and the skills you wish to develop

2. Write a blog post that considers the following– What skills will you bring to your team?– What skills do you think you need to work on?– What are the key skills that will make your

team effective?

Building a confident vocabulary

Reflect on their talents in context:skills, experience, knowledge, responsibilities, achievements, strengths, weaknesses, areas for self-improvement

The Students created valuable reflections, capturing not only what they had done and

what they had learned;

they reflected on their contribution, what they might do differently, and are starting to

articulate the skills they have developed.

Interconnected learning - learning with and from each other

Learning by doing Improving students' digital literacyVisuals aid recall when reflecting on

skills developed

Results

References• CBI (2016) The Right Combination: CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey 2016

http://www.cbi.org.uk/cbi-prod/assets/File/pdf/cbi-education-and-skills-survey2016.pdf

• High Fliers (2016) The Graduate Market in 2016 Annual review of graduate vacancies & starting salaries at Britain’s leading employers http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2016/graduate_market/GMReport16.pdf

• Laffey, J., Tupper, T., Musser, D. and Wedman, J. (1998) A Computer-Mediated Support System for Project-Based Learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 46 (1), pp. 73-86. Online at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30221051

• LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® https://www.lego.com/en-gb/seriousplay

• Kristiansen, P. and Rasmussen, R. (2014) Building a Better Business Using The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

• Papert, S. (1991) Situating Constructionism. In Idit Harel and Seymour Papert (Eds) Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

• Payscale (2016) Workforce-Skills Preparedness Report http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/job-skills

Using Lego Serious Play and Multimedia Blogs to Stimulate Effective Reflective Practice

Abstract

An innovative approach has been taken in the design of the foundation year for a new Extended Degree in Computing, whereby assessment is by competencies in a 120 credit module. The students need to pass 40 competencies to pass. In order to pass a competency they may have to demonstrate this first in class to the tutor where there is a practical element, and in addition the students are required to write a reflective blog post about each competency.

This paper will discuss how the use of Lego Serious Play was used first of all as a means to develop the students' communication skills and to explore effective teamwork and personal skills. The students are encouraged to draw, mind map, take photos or video of any aspect of their learning, and to use these within their reflective multimedia blog posts.

An introduction to reflective practice used the 'what - so what - now what' as a starting point; considered how reflective practice is used by the military who routinely conduct after-action reviews; and then how Gibbs six point reflection cycle can provide trigger points for reflective writing. This provided a pedagogical foundation for why reflection was used, but more importantly for the students it provided why it was beneficial to them both in academia and in preparation for placement or graduate employment.

An abundance of research has highlighted that communication is a skill that all graduates need to demonstrate, and is one our Computing graduates most often need to develop. The outcomes of the blogs to date have demonstrated that allowing students to take a more creative approach to expressing themselves has helped them to become more confident in reflective practice and articulation of their learning.

http://community.dur.ac.uk/cep.conference/fullprogramme.php

Sue Beckingham | @suebecksEducational Developer and Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University with a research interest in the use of social media in education. 

Blog: http://socialmediaforlearning.com/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/suebeckingham