Calling All Lego Masters: Cambridge Has a Job for You

Must have 'childlike mindset' for professorship promoting playful learning
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 17, 2017 11:56 AM CST
Job Opening at Swank UK University: Lego Professor
Masters of play, please check the job board at Cambridge.   (Martin Lehmann/Polfoto via AP)

If you've been endorsed on LinkedIn for your three-dimensional thinking skills, spatial reasoning, or ability to stay calm under the pressure of missing plastic bricks, you might want to take a shot at the latest opening at Cambridge University, which Metro has labeled "dream job alert." The Guardian reports on the institution's latest employment opportunity for a Lego "Professorship of Play," which will involve advising students on the value of "play and playfulness" if you get the gig, as well as leading the new Center for Research on Play in Education, Development, and Learning, or PEDAL. The interim director of PEDAL says the importance of play often gets short shrift and that the new center and director will lead research into how students can benefit from "playful learning."

The Lego Foundation has contributed a nearly $5 million grant toward the university's push toward play, which will require a scholarly type (namely, aces in educational and developmental psychology) with a "childlike mindset," an active imagination, and a high level of curiosity, among other desirable traits, says Bo Stjerne Thomsen, the foundation's head of research. Because of the job's uniqueness, the person hired will be expected to become "world-renowned" in that genre, he adds. If that alone isn't enough to coax you, perhaps the six-figure salary will: The job pays nearly $104,000 per year. Time's running out, though, with an application deadline of Friday. (Experts in Lego fighting need not apply.)

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