Research partners
At the LEGO Foundation we develop, support and share evidence on the value of learning through play to act as a critical resource for thought leaders, policy makers, teachers and parents around the world.
In partnership with leading institutions across geography and academic disciplines, we seek to explore and demonstrate the critical link between play and learning. Below is a brief description of current partnerships and projects.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Media Lab
For the past 30 years, the LEGO Group and the MIT Media Lab have collaborated on projects based on a shared passion for learning through play. Today, the LEGO Foundation and the Lifelong Kindergarten Group continue this tradition by pioneering new technologies and activities to engage children in playful and creative learning experiences.
University of Cambridge
PEDAL Research Centre
The PEDAL Research Centre is a central partner towards building an evidence base to help us understand the role of play in children's lifelong learning and development. The Centre’s research addresses three key questions which are fundamental to developing our understanding of play and playfulness in children: 1) What is play?, 2) How does play develop?, and 3) Does play have a role in school?
Tsinghua University
Laboratory for Lifelong Learning
The LEGO Foundation and Tsinghua University are establishing a Laboratory for Lifelong Learning Tsinghua University (TULLL) in Beijing to support play and creativity from pre-school to university, and a new educational reform in China. TULLL will develop new learning tools and methods, and advocate for an increased knowledge about children and students’ creativity, play and learning.
Aarhus University
Interacting Minds Centre
The purpose of collaborating with the Interacting Minds Centre at the Aarhus University is to conduct basic and applied research into the properties and mechanisms of playful learning experiences. The aim is to develop tools and methods for documenting, evaluating and measuring play and learning experiences; expand the research network and facilitate knowledge transfer to associated partners.
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Project Zero
The Pedagogy of Play (PoP) project is a two-year participatory research initiative in partnership with the International School of Billund and Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Supported by the LEGO Foundation, PoP explores how teaching methodologies around playful learning can be developed.
University of Copenhagen
Baby Lab
This project aims to expand ideas of learning through play by including new foci on child exploration, parental support of exploration, interactive, socio-emotional aspects, and specific characteristics of materials in a playful child-caregiver interaction in cohorts of children 2-5.
Tufts University
Center for Engineering Education and Outreach
Researchers from Center for Engineering Education and Outreach at Tufts University are using their experience to guide the development of a new Creator Space at the International School of Billund to help integrate classical engineering topics such as design and testing into the learning experience for students, including kindergarten.
BRAC University
Play Lab
This project aims to establish educational initiatives for children 3-5 through a guided-play curricula facilitated by trained play agents in community-based spaces called Play Labs. Research within BRAC University will focus on the impact on children’s whole child development.
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