LEGO boosts life skills for children
LEGO Foundation, a corporate foundation created by the owner of the Denmark-based LEGO Group, is joining hands with several educational institutes in China to nurture interest in learning through play and inculcate vital skills among the country’s children and students.
In September, the foundation launched a fellowship program with Tsinghua University that seeks to honor business administration program students who show creativity skills, and are committed to the idea of lifelong learning in their efforts to progress as entrepreneurs.
The foundation and the Tsinghua University Lab for Lifelong Learning (TULLL) entered into a partnership in January 2016 to support the Chinese educational strategy by providing a convenient platform to develop new tools that can foster creativity and innovation in children and students.
Since the lab started operations in April 2016, it has hosted various activities and programs including summer schools and workshops to support joint efforts in developing new learning tools, stimulate creative engagement and study its impact on learning as well as convening decision makers around learning through play.
“There is increased global attention to develop stronger life skills, including critical thinking, creativity, problem solving and social skills and we know that leisure activities are meaningful ways of equipping children for the challenges they face,” said John Goodwin, chief executive officer of the LEGO Foundation.
Interest is also growing from Chinese parents to enable their children to develop creative and collaborative skills.
The TULLL organized summer schools in 2016 and 2017 with 80 Chinese students to let them experience hands-on learning activities. Over 1,200 Chinese parents sought admission for their children in the program.
“All children are naturally creative from birth. We believe children are our role models as they are inherently curious and eager to learn about the world around them,” Goodwin added.
“Our partnership with the Tsinghua University Lab for Lifelong Learning supports our aim to bring learning through play to Chinese parents and children,” said Goodwin.
students
He added it is also aimed at influencing leaders of the educational industry so that they can include more creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking as important aspects of the educational system.
According to the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, a test that is believed to be one of the most systematic assessments of creativity, 98 percent of the children in a kindergarten are “creative geniuses”.
They can think of endless opportunities of how to use a paper clip. This ability diminishes drastically, as children go through the formal schooling system and by the age of 25, only 3 percent remain creative geniuses, it said.
“It is this erosion of creative ability that we are trying to prevent by bringing learning through play into children’s homes, schools and communities — in China and rest of the world,” Goodwin said.