Research Shows that Learning Through Play is Critical to Building the Breadth of Skills needed to Solve the Problems of the Future
Last week at the HundrED Innovation Summit, we announced the Spotlight on Creativity encouraging educators and innovators around the world to share ideas about innovations that cultivate creativity as a skill in schools, classrooms, and communities. The goal of the campaign is to showcase a carefully curated collection of 10 education innovations in creativity, aimed at fostering greater awareness and understanding of how creativity happens.
We are committed to helping these innovations spread so that eventually every child is encouraged to flourish by unleashing their creativity and helping to improve their respective worlds and our collective world. This program further galvanizes the LEGO Foundation’s mission, which aims to build a future in which learning through play empowers children to become creative, engaged, life-long learners.
In an age of rapid innovation, where children will encounter unimagined advances and navigate unpredictable dilemmas, the acquisition of knowledge alone is not sufficient to enable them to survive and thrive - both in work and in life. It is therefore essential that children are supported to develop a holistic, breadth of skills. Creativity is one of those core skills for holistic development. Creativity can support individuals to be more engaged in learning - fostering imagination and curiosity, and ensuring individuals find learning meaningful by connecting learning goals with the world around them and things that they care about. Creativity can also have positive effects for communities, societies and economies – fostering greater efforts to find creative solutions to address collective social, economic and political issues. For example, we only ever solve the challenge of climate change if there is more creativity in the world.
At the same time, the World Economic Forum (2016) reported employers around the world value creativity as one of the most desirable abilities for employees, above mathematical and logical reasoning.
There is an opportunity and urgent need right now to inject the power of creativity into education systems around the world (as part of a wider skills revolution). Some countries and systems are already acknowledging the benefits that fostering creativity can bring to their citizens, and are working to nurture, teach and develop creativity. The Spotlight on Creativity will help to shine a light on some of these great examples.
This partnership project marks HundrED's tenth Spotlight, for this occasion exploring the theme of Creativity, our most exciting and ambitious Spotlight to date. In an age of rapid innovation, it is critical that children are supported to develop a breadth of skills. Creativity is an essential skill for holistic development, needed to thrive and succeed in work and life, and enabling connection, exploration, and transformation of the world in new and meaningful ways. The LEGO Foundation believes in the powerful connection between creativity and learning through play. More often than not, the creative process is infused with the five characteristics of learning through play: when children are creative, they actively engage with ideas, interact with their social environment, iterate on what they find, and make meaning of what they encounter and create.
The Spotlight campaign seeking innovations for the Spotlight on Creativity is now open until Wednesday 25th March 2020, 5pm UTC (Deadline extended to Friday, 8th April 2020, 5pm UTC) followed by a selection process where the LEGO Foundation, HundrED and the Spotlight Advisory Board will identify the shortlist. Some of the shortlist innovators will be invited to the LEGO Idea Conference in March, and the final 10-15 selected innovations will be announced in November at the 2020 HundrED Innovation Summit in Helsinki, Finland.
For more information and share your innovation unleashing creativity, explore the Spotlight page!
