Using lego serious play and multimedia blogs to stimulate effective reflective practice
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Transcript of Using lego serious play and multimedia blogs to stimulate effective reflective practice
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