Rich Stories: Embedding LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® into Undergraduate Medical Education

Reflective practice is an essential part of medical education and practice, yet students and teaching staff often struggle with this core competence. There is an acknowledged risk, that unless well managed, reflection can become mere performance under surveillance or simple box-ticking. Creative pedagogy offers one means to introduce students to reflective practice in meaningful fashion, but often sits well outside mainstream medical curricula.

In this paper, we introduce the concept of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) as a means to channel students’ creativity and break down boundaries and preconceptions regarding reflective practice or any other abstract concept. Drawing on examples from our own practice, we demonstrate the depth and breadth of engagement from students, and demonstrate positive feedback and impact on learners. We reflect on the development of this methodology across three years of implementation, and discuss both anticipated and unexpected facets of this work.

Creative pedagogy, as exemplified by LSP methodology, has significant potential to disrupt the orthodoxy of biomedically-focused medical education. This empowers learners to ‘think outside the box’, thus enriching their learning experience. Creative pedagogy of this sort is likely to have multiple similar applications in a wide variety of higher education settings.