Meet Roel van der Linden (The Netherlands)
I work as a guest teacher in primary and secondary schools. During my lessons I use LEGO®, in particular the STEAM* (21st century Skills) sets provided by LEGO Education. In 2021 I became certified as a facilitator in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) method. Partly thanks to LSP, I was able to further expand my services to the board, management, and teachers in the schools where I already worked.
To share more from my experiences, it is important to know that the lessons I give to the students in schools, usually consist of a block of one hour. This limits the possibilities of using LSP. The first lesson alone, aimed at getting acquainted with the method, skills building, takes an hour.
In all subsequent lessons, we use every second of the time we have. As indicated, the first lesson focuses on building skills. In doing so, I discovered that most children quickly forget the traditional building of ready-made packages, and quickly adapt to the LSP methodology. Based on the core process, we see that LSP makes them focus more on the story, on their presentation, rather than on building and programming. The main rule I teach them the first few times is not to laugh at other students’ models; there are no wrong answers.
During the lesson, the students spend most of the time building answers to the question. Then they present their answer to the group (sharing) and questions can be asked for further clarification and they discuss the answer together in groups.
As a teacher, I can now combine the methodology of LSP and the teaching materials of LEGO Education in my lessons. Lesson topics to build, program, and present are usually based on the school’s themes, events, or major current issues. The children experience more fun through the combination and also learn more. A few examples are:
- Teachers’ day: How could the teacher really help during the lessons?
- The School Anniversary: What is really needed to keep the school strong in the coming years?
- World Clean Up Day: Present an idea to make the world clean again.
- Theme: After a school trip to a theme park, the group discussed how to brighten up the park and in teams present their creations.
My self-employment always leads me to new methods – I just wanted to develop myself further and learn something new, and of course I couldn’t avoid LSP! I am using this method more and more, especially in the setting of individual coaching, and I am thrilled and deeply moved and touched every time by what the LEGO bricks can bring out of my clients. It’s a wonderful feeling for both the client and me as a coach/consultant.
A good example came from one of the school directors, who indicated that through the lessons 21st century skills/ STEAM* learning, as well as social skills, were developed as collaboration; the theory learned was put into practice.
And finally, an example of feedback from a student, which we do it all for. He came over for a hug after class, thanked me warmly and said, “This was a really nice, interesting and enjoyable way of learning, thank you.”
* STEAM is designed to help teacher develop children’s science, technology, engineering, art, and math skills.