Our Entry to the Re-Imagine Learning Competition

In past months we submitted an application to the Re-Imagine Learning Competition organized by the LEGO Foundation and Ashoka. Here is a more detailed description of our proposal. Our entry can be viewed here.

The LEMAs use the learning games we have carefully designed, structured and tested across three decades of work, in a variety of social contexts and with diverse populations. The author of these games has achieved international recognition for his work and innovation as an Ashoka Fellow and a Schwab Social Entrepreneur.

Our entry to the competition includes, the creation of a “Learning Box” containing a small set of LEGO bricks to assemble four (4) distinctive games intended to develop numerical systems, factorization, coding, systematization, logic and analytical thinking. To date we have used wooden elements, in conjunction with workbooks we have already edited and published, to teach these concepts. 

LEGO bricks materialize, in a clear and unique way, a highly important concept in our teaching method: the understanding of “the part” and “the whole” in a system context. For instance, we see how something small like a LEGO brick becomes something larger when other small pieces are added, creating a new configuration.  This principle is fundamental for any systematic and critical thinking process to occur. In viewing the "whole," a cognitive process takes place; the mind makes a leap from comprehending the parts, to realizing the whole and its relationship. It also makes possible the capacity to construct and deconstruct structures. The understanding that there is a relationship between “elements” that gives form to complex structures, has all kinds of implications in a diversity of fields such as social, economic, architectural, philosophical. In the area of our interest, the development of the linguistic and mathematical brain, this is fundamental because it allows the learner to recognize that with a finite number of characters that can  be letters or numbers, we can create the infinite, and that the relationship of the parts are key elements of a system; in turn allowing us to understand concepts like the context, the global, the multidimensional, the complex (Morin, Bohr, others). 

Thus, the learning box containing LEGO bricks will offer children new tools and opportunities to develop the ability to think, play, question, explore, construct and deconstruct knowledge. In this order of ideas, we teach literacy and numeracy, but most importantly, we aim at developing the ability to think in the context of today. Through play we are able to create an environment where the learner can achieve higher order thinking skills. 

In sum, the LEMAs will use LEGO bricks in addition to our other learning tools namely, the “ABC DE la Matemática“ (ABC of Mathematics) and, in the case of Spanish speaking countries, the “abcdespañol”, or their adaptations in English, Portuguese, Mam, Quechi, Katchiquel, or the forthcoming French version, depending on the country or population where the LEMAs are implemented. With these learning tools, the LEMAs will ensure that children everywhere will achieve the fundamental thinking skills and the basic tools necessary for lifelong learning and a better opportunity to succeed in life.

Is the world is ready to Re-imagine Learning? We think so and this is why

A few recent and very inspiring trends are taking place in front of our eyes: 1) Organizations like the International Play Association with support from others, are advocating for the adoption of a general comment on article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, bringing centrality to children’s right to play, 2) There is growing understanding that learning and play are not incompatible, and 3) Technology has made possible to learn anything, anytime, anywhere; forcing education to change from a system that encourages discipline, individuality and repetition (important during the industrial revolution), to a system that aims at developing the necessary skills to access and process information, think critically, question, analyze, synthesize, make connections, develop autonomous conclusions, collaborate, be comfortable with the uncertainty and complexity of the world we live in, live peacefully and protect the environment (important in the 21st century).
30 years later, we are excited to see that a paradigm change has finally taken place, making it possible to rethink schooling, education, play and learning. This is a great moment for us, one that inspires us to continue to work with more conviction and energy than ever, fueled by the support, encouragement and drive of our fellow pacesetters and strengthened by the commitment of international organizations and foundation with global reach, to rethink and transform learning.

Evidence that the world is ready for a change comes from two additional observations. One, the fact that 617 entries were submitted to the Re-imagine learning competition, with over 300 pacesetters already working to change the way the world learns. Second, when we first started talking about play and learning, play and literacy, play in schools, bringing learning outside of the schools, we found much resistance as teachers and parents alike thought that these were antagonistic processes. Parents in particular, insisted that children will not learn anything if they were playing. Later, they were able to discover that children using our learning games learned to read and write quicker than their counterparts and were more enthusiastic about learning and going to school than others.