Love Lego? The University of Cambridge is looking for a Lego Professor lol
If your idea of the perfect job is playing with Lego all day, you may be in luck.
The University of Cambridge is advertising for a Lego Professorship of Play in Education, Development, and Learning thanks to funding from the Lego Foundation.
The application does come with a number of caveats, though. Namely, you must be an "outstanding scholar in the field of educational or developmental psychology in early years development" – with a focus on working in the field of play and playfulness – and the deadline is this Friday, January 20.
The Lego Foundation has also funded a research centre in Play in Education, Development and Learning (Pedal) to study the importance of play in education. It is aiming to produce research which supports "excellence in education" to help children learn better in schools.
In the job listing, the Board of Electors writes: "Candidates for the Lego Professorship in the Faculty of Education will have an outstanding research record of international stature and the vision, leadership, experience and enthusiasm to act as Director of the newly established Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (Pedal)."
"Standard professorial duties include teaching and research, examining, supervision and administration. The Professor will be based in Cambridge. A competitive salary will be offered."
There is an increasing focus on how important play is in education, not just from Lego but from other firms including Microsoft. Bill Gates' company recently launched Minecraft: Education Edition, following a six-month beta that saw more than 50,000 students and teachers around the world testing out the software.
Unlike the regular version of the game, Education Edition is specifically tailored for school use, allowing teachers to deliver interactive lessons and guide pupils through concepts by 'doing' rather than rote memorisation.
It drew criticism, however, from Tom Bennett – the UK government's 'behaviour czar', who believes the sandbox world-builder is a detriment to lessons.
As part of his role as director of researchED and Chair of the Department for Education's behaviour group, he advises MPs about classroom behaviour, and spoke out against what he sees as the 'gimmicky' use of Minecraft in classrooms.
Speaking to The Times (paywalled), Bennett said: "I am not a fan of Minecraft in lessons. This smacks to me of another gimmick which will get in the way of children actually learning."
He added, mimicking language used in the recent US election campaign by president-elect Trump, "removing these gimmicky aspects of education is one of the biggest tasks facing us as teachers. We need to drain the swamp of gimmicks."
