A Case Study of Experiential Entrepreneurial Learning through LEGO® Play.

Abstract

Classroom learning through LEGO® play, or LEGO Serious Play™ methodology has been implemented within educational curricula for many years (Ng Yong Liang et al., 2021). The prominence of this approach in Higher Education management education (Martin-Cruz et al., 2022; McCusker, 2020) is growing, where LEGO® building has been viewed as a tool to help unpack management issues using creative play strategies (McGehee, 2022). Entrepreneurial learning differs from traditional, didactic learning by instead pedestalling experiential activities through learning by doing (Macht & Ball, 2016) and subsequent reflections (Kolb, 1984), essentially mimicking how entrepreneurs learn in practice (Ries, 2011). This case study focuses on providing entrepreneurship-focused learning for Foundation (Level 3) Business and Management students at a UK-based HE University. The case demonstrates a unique curriculum approach that delivers students a learning-by-doing experience through LEGO® play, before subsequently facilitating the reflective mapping of learnings to fundamental entrepreneurial concepts and skills. The class activity begins with students placed in teams, and being challenged with a seemingly simple LEGO® play task of building a model car which will subsequently be tested against other teams’ models. However, the task has been strategically devised to include purposeful complications (e.g. LEGO® sets deliberately tampered with where key pieces or instruction books/pages are missing) meaning the initially straightforward task required students to use creative problem-solving entrepreneurial skills to successfully complete. After the models were tested and a team provisionally crowned the ‘winner’, the real learning comes from the second part of the session challenging students to assess their experiential learning from the activity through a deep reflective review, constituting a fundamental component of the learning process. Data was captured through both researcher observations during the activity and learner-centric data from student presentations of their identified learning. Initial analysis of the findings identified that students mapped a spectrum of entrepreneurial concepts and skills developed from the activity (including risk-taking, adaptability, teamwork, creativity, innovation, resourcing, and leadership), illustrating how integrating LEGO® play with experiential learning approaches can foster an effective and engaging student-led learning experiences in the classroom.