constructionism Papert "concrete thinking" play LEGO business learning mathematics Piaget

Constructionism -- a theory of learning developed by Seymour Papert and his colleagues at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA).

Although both Piaget and Papert developed their theories through observing the behavior and learning activities of children, Papert, especially, believes that these findings are equally applicable to adults.

In what follows, we first discuss how these theories were developed and then see what their implications are for LEGO SERIOUS PLAY.

Constructivism Jean Piaget is perhaps best known for his stage theory of child development.

Piaget discovered that children are not just passive absorbers of experience and information, but active theory builders.

In one of his more famous experiments, Piaget discovered that young children believe that water can change in amount when poured from a short, wide glass into a tall, thin one.

This theory was no doubt built out of many experiences (measuring children's heights back to back, building block towers, amount of milk in one glass) into a robust structure.

Several things impressed him: the level of engagement of the children; the elements of creativity and originality in the actual products; the interaction and collaboration among the children; the longevity of the enterprise; and the sheer sense of fun and enjoyment that permeated the experience.

He knew from his own experience that mathematics was exciting, beautiful, challenging, engaging and every bit as creative as making soap sculpture.

Papert's contemplations on that soap sculpture class led him on a many-year journey to design a more constructable mathematics.

He knew he would have to work with media more sophisticated and powerful than simple art materials.

In the 1970s, Papert and his colleagues designed a computer programming language called Logo, which enabled children to use mathematics as a building material for creating pictures, animations, music, games, simulations (among other things) on the computer.

The Value of Concrete Thinking Although Papert's constructionism embraces and builds upon Piaget's constructivism, over time, Papert eventually came to see some drawbacks to Piaget's stage theory.

He sees concrete thinking -- i.e. thinking with and through concrete objects -- as a mode of thinking complementary to more abstract, formal modes of thought.

At the core of both ideas is the notion that when we "think with objects" or "think through our fingers" we unleash creative energies, modes of thought, and ways of seeing that most adults have forgotten they even possessed.

LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is our bold attempt to take the power of constructionism and apply it to the complexity of the business world, thereby making the abstract network of interrelationships that make up any business, concrete, appropriable and comprehensible.

They can manipulate it, play with it and ask all sorts of "what if" questions by physically manipulating their business model.