We’ve all thought it. Spending our childhoods playing with Legos instead of drawing within the lines of coloring books probably made us more creative as individuals and working professionals. According to Stephan Turnipseed, President Emeritus & Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships at LEGO Education, it actually did. Recently, I caught up with him after he spoke at the Sandox Summit, a conference on how technology affects the way kids play and learn, to get his thoughts on the importance of learning innovative thinking and its role in professional success within the current and future job market.
At the conference you talked about engaging kids in playful learning early on - why is that important?
Ninety eight percent of children test as creative geniuses at age 5, but that number decreases to only two percent of adults by age 25, after 20 years of education according to a study by George Land and Beth Jarman. Employers want creative problem solvers who can come up with innovative, new solutions to issues. We're unfortunately stuck in an age where we channel all school of thinking to one right answer - A, B, C or D. In our global economy, playful learning and creativity are the engines that drive innovation.
You also discussed the difficulty of preparing kids for a world that doesn't yet exist. What does that mean and how should kids prepare?
Sixty-five percent of today's children will end up at jobs that haven't been invented yet. But at the very root of education reform should be preparing our children to become valuable members of the next generation job force. As technology continues to evolve, even the basic computer skills required for today's jobs have been adopted by children at a very young age. There's no way to predict what an engineering, computer science or developer job will look like in 20 years – in fact, who knows if these jobs will even exist then!
Why is 'learning how to learn' so important, and how will that matter for future kids exceling in jobs of the future?
Standardized testing in many ways encourages students to succeed with one answer, but in the real world it's not about one answer. Companies want multiple answers to the same problem so that they can choose which fits the organization best. We should be focused on teaching our students to have process skills, enabling them to create innovative and surprising solutions to new problems, rather than regurgitate the solutions to problems of the past. Students failing and failing often is a critical part of how the creative and engineering process works, which helps them develop the tenacity and ability to adapt to change.
You mentioned creativity, problem solving and critical thinking as ‘must need’ key skills. How are these skills helpful for people looking to work in the tech industry?
Providing a framework for learning how to systematically and creatively solve problems is preparing students for future jobs – particularly in the technology field which is changing at a rapid pace almost daily. A 2010 IBM survey of global business leaders shows the number one quality business leaders look for in employees is creativity. In our global economy, creativity is the engine that drives innovation. Innovation drives product creation. Product creation drives manufacturing and service delivery, which, in turn, drive job creation. And jobs drive the economy.
The ability to tinker with technology, and be creative and hands on, promotes new developments and innovations across the industry. The maker community is constantly expanding and a large amount of technology innovations today stem from the creativity of just one person!
Critical thinking and problem solving are also critical as they help employees keep up with this ever changing technology industry. Combinations of all three of these skills are keys to success for children in the classroom.
What are some essential skills aspiring engineers need to know?
Aspiring engineers need to accept that failure is not always a bad thing. There is a stigma around failing in today's society, and we've all experienced it. But we need to get rid of this stigma in today's classroom. Every famous engineer and inventor in history has failed far more than they've succeeded, but they have learned from those mistakes and ultimately were successful. It is OK to fail often and early, and try again. It is important for engineers to understand this philosophy to build their skill set.
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