Lego Course "Consumer Behavior" Opens

“What is brand personality? Does Mercedes-Benz symbolize wealth while BMW symbolize success?”

Along with elaborate teaching videos, the 30 students of the IDBE project of Xuanhuai School began a new basic course, Consumer Behavior. The psychology and behavior of consumers is no longer boring and abstract, but has become a real-life issue. After reviewing and learning the basic concepts, the teacher, Shi Yingjie did not directly explain whose customers are richer, Mercedes-Benz or BMW, but let the students use the Lego module to build, ask questions, debate, and finally the students came up with an answer to this question. In this problem-driven innovative experiential class, it is more about self-study by the students under the guidance of the teacher. In the classroom, students are divided into groups according to their status and needs, then comes problem solving, thinking in depth and learning in a new way.

People's impression of basic business courses leads them to conclude they are only about rote memorization, and are abstract and boring, however, "Consumer Behavior", the basic theory course of the IDBE project, not only teaches the relevant economics knowledge, but cultivates creative thinking. Since the start of the Lego class, the students have found that the theoretical lessons can be very interesting. The students who participated in the experiential course spoke highly of the course: well-designed, informative, well-structured and interesting.

In the view of Shi Yingjie, “Lego Serious Play” is not simply building blocks, but the teachers carefully organize the knowledge points to form a multi-level learning system with Lego as the core. First of all, it is a novelty and challenge for students, and there is excitement in the classroom. The second is the construction link, which allows students to explore their own knowledge. Li Xiaomei, a teacher with International “Lego？Serious Play？” Certification, believes that the practical learning laboratory of the Xuanhuai School combines happy education with innovative learning to provide a productive learning space for students. Through “hands-on thinking”, students build a different problem model to visualize their thoughts, develop their own deep-rooted imagination, and constantly rediscover themselves and unearth their potential.

After the experiential class, the students were still immersed in it. Xiang Zhichen said: "I really liked the teacher's explanation. The class was also very interesting. The Lego experience class was launched as a novel pilot, so that we can make full use of our imagination and build a unique model of our own, which broadens our minds. At the same time, we are encouraged to put our innovative ideas into practice in real life!" Shi Liangxing, Dean of Xuanhuai School, explained: “The establishment of “Manual Learning Lab” by Xuanhuai School is one of the models for exploring innovative teaching at Tianjin University. Tianjin University is also the first university in China to introduce the concept of Lego Serious Play. In this lab, there are five teachers, forming a hands-on learning and innovative teaching team to carry out innovative teaching models including Lego Serious Play, and strive to achieve a truly student-centered and continuous improvement of students' learning efficiency and effectiveness. This is a new cognitive method. Under the teacher's organization, students acquire new knowledge through participation in construction, questioning, debating, etc. This form of teaching is fun and educational, and has achieved good results in improving learning efficiency and student experience. This is why many of the world’s most prestigious universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, MIT and Harvard have introduced these kinds of teaching methods. At present, in the Xuanhuai School, in addition to the students in the school, they also receive teachers, business executives, high school students, etc. into seminars and training courses to provide this innovative hands-on learning experience. "

The experiential course allows students to be more innovative. Only through teacher-inspired teaching can students mobilize their initiative and consciousness, stimulate positive thinking, and cultivate the ability to analyze problems thus have innovative ideas and make new discoveries.