Innovatia

What happens when a global toy manufacturer realises it can be more than a source of entertainment? LEGO funds research, resources, and STEM-focused products to drive hands-on learning, embracing innovation as a social good. MORE THAN A TOY M ost children in Australia will hold a piece of LEGO in their hands at least once through childhood, but the company is Confidence and learning One recent poll funded by the LEGO Foundation attempted to understand the general level of confidence among STEM, or STEAM (which is STEM plus the Arts, a recognition of their crucial role in shaping understanding). Based on 11,000

responses, including 5,000 students and parents, and 1,000 teachers, there was a clear disconnect in confidence. Only 17 per cent of students considered them- selves ‘very confident’ in learning STEAM sub- jects. Only 36 per cent of teachers considered their students more confident today than five years ago, and only 38 per cent of parents believed their child was more confident than they were at the same age. Hardly inspiring fig- ures, especially when you consider that 76 per cent of teachers surveyed believe that anxiety and a lack of confidence hinder learning among their students, and half of students surveyed feel nervous about trying new things at school.

Here’s where hands-on learning could come in “handy”: as many as 95 per cent of teachers believe that it builds student confidence, 93 per cent of parents believe that it helps their chil- dren retain skills, and just under 90 per cent of students feel that it helps them learn, and retain information.

“The results show that to build STEAM skills is to build confidence.“

about much more than popular toys. The LEGO Foundation, first set up in 1986, is now is a force worldwide in promoting the neuroscience behind play, and learning. For all the talk in Australia of the need to build STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills at a young age, there are few companies actively invested in growing the research base of what works to engage children, and even fewer providing those resources to the general public for free. As Dubois et al. write in The Conversation, “Turning raw material into something that sparks kids’ imagination, promote social and motor skills development or perhaps even trigger career aspirations, is no small endeavour. “Involved in this process are designers, art- ists, videographers and engineers, in addi- tion to marketers, sales representatives and everyone in between. These innovators lev- erage the latest science — psychology, early childhood development, linguistics, physics, computer modelling — and use techniques such as biomimicry to replicate nature’s work (such as hatching).”

The benefits of building STEAM skills also appear to have confidence-boosting effects broadly in education settings. 82 per cent of students that were confident in STEAM felt con- fident about school broadly, and 75 per cent said they felt more confident than their peers. Building confidence There is a wealth of research that shows the link between hands-on play and learning. A 2019 paper featuring an Australian lead author, Rachel Parker, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), alongside Dr Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Global Head of Research at the LEGO Foundation, asked: How has learning through play been applied in formal schooling, and what has been the impact on children’s holis- tic skills? Mapping out pedagogies, the methods and practices of teaching, the LEGO-funded research noted that in Australia, England, and the United

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