Creative Praxis in the Classroom Workshop: Using The Impactful-Five (i5) Pedagogy with the PRME Community

Considering the sustainable development issues facing our world, it has become increasingly clear that leaders with holistic skill sets are in scarce supply. Our education system is struggling to equip young learners with the breadth of skills they need to navigate uncertain times. In an effort to prepare the next generation of leaders to address sustainable development, the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative of the United Nations Global Compact, has established the Impactful Five (i5) project which builds on prior LEGO Foundation research and expertise to develop and pilot pedagogical approaches for holistic skill set development. It builds on research by the LEGO Foundation that finds learning most effective when applying the five principles of personal meaningfulness, active engagement, multiple iterations, social engagement and joyfulness. The purpose of the i5 project is to transfer and apply these practices of effective playful learning into the domain of business schools in order to create an impactful pedagogy for responsible management that is also applicable to other business domains and divisions.

In this workshop alongside the 7th Biennial Conference of the Africa Academy of Management, participants will learn about PRME and the i5 project, the underlying pedagogy research by the LEGO Foundation which develops creative and critical skills in business school students, and how i5 has been applied in the classroom. Participants will then engage in breakout roundtables that explore 1) how to frame the i5 characteristics locally to the African classroom and connecting the work you’re already doing to the i5 framework; 2) institutional barriers in Africa to implementing i5 and how PRME Chapter Africa can support; 3) skills development for pedagogies in your network; and 4) maximizing skills development for African students.

Participants will come out of this workshop with a clear understanding of the opportunities to benefit from and get involved with the i5 project. Participants will also receive a certificate after attending the workshop upon successful completion of an assessment.