Getting Serious About PLAY®
By Rika Yasukawa
Mr. Mark Sheehan and Mr. Jenson Goh participated at the 2019 JEMUN as guest facilitators.
Originally from Boston, United States, Sheehan has been a professor at Hannan University for 18 years. He teaches in the fields of oral communication, topic studies, presentation and debate. Goh teaches about social issues at National University of Singapore.
Both hold LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator qualifications and teamed up to lead a quality of life and societal impact/solution study workshop based on LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®.
Getting Serious About PLAY®
Interview with Mark Sheehan
Q: How many times have you joined JEMUN?
A: This is my 8th time.
Q: Why did you join JEMUN the first time?
A: Todd Thorpe and I are friends since 18 years ago, and when Professor Thorpe started JEMUN, he invited me. I said, “Sure!” That first time JEMUN was smaller than it is now.
Q: What are some positive reasons for joining JEMUN?
A: Many things I like, but it’s fun. Before, the students are nervous and worry, so also I feel sad like, are they ok. But after, they come back on campus and recognize they get friendly, feel that they have changed and that their English has improved.
Q: When and how did you know about LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®?
A: My wife’s friend has the qualification of it and she told me about it. When I heard, I thought it sounds like a fun way for students [to learn].
Q: What do you think are some good points of LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®?
A: It is fun, gets people think be creative and express themselves uniquely.
Q: Do you usually use LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY® in your class?
A: Sometimes. I use it in my seminar and for problem solving in second language learning.
Q: Do you have anything you want to do in the future with LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®?
A: Maybe try to use it more for younger people like elementary or high school students to help them with English skills or presentation skills.
Q: What do you want students to learn through LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®?
A: Through this event here, we want them to become more confident and to be able to have fun and learn a lot at the same time, maybe unlock a different way of looking at things, not just in black and white.
Q: What kind of students do you want to use LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY® and learn from it?
A: I think a student who is kind of shy, even though they have good ideas they don’t say their ideas because they don’t have confidence.
Interview with Jenson Goh
Q: How many times have you joined JEMUN?
A: This is the first time.
Q: Why did you become an academic?
A: Well, midlife enlightenment, I suppose. I used to be an IT professional for 16 years. Then when I was 39, started to question life, then I decided on academics to give me my motion back.
Q: What brought you here?
A: I met Mark and Todd in one of the Asia committee conference of LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY®, and they talked about JEMUN. I thought was very interesting to be able to engage with students. So that was the reason why I wanted to participate.
A: Well, you see yourself, I mean the bricks make it easy for people to follow through the thought.
Q: Do you have anything you want to do with LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY® in the future?
A: Something in my college, system thinking. It is a complex problem. Apply the technique to solve problems.
Q: Do you use LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY® in your class?
A: I use it in my LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY® class. It’s about food waste. We use the LEGO®SERIOUS PLAY® for solutions.
Q: What do you want students to learn?
A: It depends on the theme. I usually try to look at what they conceive and design and their process to achieve that.
Q: What kind of students do you want to use it?
A: There’s no particular type, everyone. It is a very powerful tool.
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