Category / REF Subjects

LEGO® Serious Play and the Work of Embedding UN SDGs in practice.

Knowledge Exchange, staff profile pages, Training, Women's Academic Network

 

There is a particular silence that falls over a room of academics and practitioners when you put a box of LEGO bricks in front of them and ask them to build what sustainability means in their work. That silence lasts about four seconds. Then someone reaches in.

This afternoon, colleagues from across the University’s Sustainability Academic Network (SAN) sat around a table and did exactly that. The question we had was one that we rarely give ourselves room to think about properly: how do we embed the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) into what and how we teach or work, in a way that means something beyond a line in a validation document or the curriculum? The method was LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP). Facilitated by Stefan Kleipoedzsus and me, it was, by any measure, a generative afternoon.

LSP was developed in the late 1990s by two professors, Johan Roos and Bart Victor, as a way to help senior executives think and talk differently about their organisations (Roos & Victor, 1999; Roos et al., 2004). Its native habitat is adults wrestling with challenging, ambiguous, organisationally-loaded questions, which is a fair description of curriculum design under a sustainability mandate. Released openly in 2010 and now used across start-ups, multinationals and universities alike (Kristiansen & Rasmussen, 2014), the method’s pedigree is corporate strategy, not childhood play with the bricks. Using it with academics is not a gimmick; it returns it to its roots.

But why does it earn its place in staff development?

The cognitive case is well established. Building externalises thinking: when we construct a physical model, we recruit the body’s interaction with the world into our reasoning, surfacing tacit knowledge that talk alone leaves buried (Barsalou, 2008; Wilson, 2002). This is the constructionist premise, that we think most powerfully when we are making something shareable (Papert & Harel, 1991).

But for educators and sustainability practitioners, there is a second, sharper reason. We largely teach as we were taught. If we want colleagues to consider experiential, active pedagogies for their own students, what we can do is have them experience one and then reflect on it. LSP turns staff development into exactly the reflective practice we ask of ourselves as professionals (Schön, 1991); not a lecture about active learning, but the thing itself, felt from the inside. What you do with a method after you have built it with your own hands is a different decision from what you do with one you have only heard described.

Sustainability is a difficult thing to discuss in a room. It is abstract, contested, unevenly understood across disciplines, and easy to deflect with the familiar moves, that’s not relevant to my subject, we already do that, whose definition anyway? A conventional meeting tends to reward whoever is most fluent or most senior.

Building changes the dynamics. When a colleague presents assumptions like height, weight, and form in bricks, it turns into an object on the table, something the group can analyse together rather than a claim to be swiftly rebutted. The convention that a model’s meaning belongs to its creator protects an idea long enough for it to be listened to. Across various faculties and departments with different languages for sustainability, models provided a shared, neutral platform. Statler et al. (2009 and 2011) describe LSP as a way to hold paradox and complexity openly rather than prematurely collapsing them, which is exactly the right approach for the SDGs, where the tensions between goals are not flaws but the core of the work.

But one excellent afternoon is a beginning, not evidence. The trouble with any workshop of this kind is that it generates energy and insight that have evaporated by the following Monday, a memorable session that embeds nothing. It is also true that the people in the room were a self-selecting sustainability network; the method’s more robust test will be the others who are indifferent or unconvinced, and we should not mistake a willing audience for a settled case.

So the test of this work is whether anything in our modules, our assessments and our everyday conversations actually shifts as a result, and whether the alignment with the BU2035 strategy becomes substantive rather than a matter of compliance. What the session did show was where colleagues are, made tacit assumptions visible and shared, and built the cross-faculty relationships that durable curriculum change depends on. We see this as the first move in something larger, and we are already thinking about what a sustained, evidence-based strand of practice looks like beyond a single afternoon. If the method’s history tells us anything, it is that adults do some of their most serious thinking when we let them build.

 

Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59(1), 617–645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639

Kristiansen, P., & Rasmussen, R. (2014). Building a better business using the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method. Wiley.

Papert, S., & Harel, I. (1991). Constructionism. Norwood, NJ. Ablex Publishing.

Roos, J., & Victor, B. (1999). Towards a new model of strategy-making as serious play. European Management Journal, 17(4), 348–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0263-2373(99)00015-8

Roos, J., Victor, B., & Statler, M. (2004). Playing seriously with strategy. Long Range Planning, 37(6), 549–568.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2004.09.005

Schön, D. A. (1992). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315237473

Statler, M., Heracleous, L., & Jacobs, C. D. (2011). Serious play as a practice of paradox. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(2), 236–256. DOI:10.1177/0021886311398453

Statler, M., Roos, J., & Victor, B. (2009). Ain’t Misbehavin’: Taking Play Seriously in Organizations. Journal of Change Management, 9, 107 – 87. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010902727252

Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4), 625–636. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196322

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience academics – would you like to get more involved in preparing our next REF submission?

REF Subjects, Research assessment

We are currently recruiting for an Impact Champion to help support preparation for our next REF Submission to UoA4: Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience.

The deadline for expressions of interest is noon 10 June 2026. The role is recruited through an open and transparent process, which gives all academic staff the opportunity to put themselves forward. Applications from underrepresented groups are particularly welcome.

We are currently preparing submissions to ten UoAs. Each UoA has a leadership team with at least one leader, output and impact champion. The leadership team are supported by a panel of reviewers who assess the research from the unit. This includes a diverse range of research outputs (including journal articles, books and chapters, films, digital artefacts etc) and impact case studies.

 

 

 

 

 

All roles require a level of commitment which is recognised accordingly with time to review, attend meetings, and take responsibility for tasks.

Undertaking a UOA role can be enjoyable and rewarding as two of our current champions testify:

“As UOA Outputs Champion you develop a detailed knowledge of all the great work that colleagues are doing related to the subject, and the different outlets used for disseminating their work.  You get to know what research is going on across BU, and it’s interesting to see the differences between disciplines.  It’s a good way develop your knowledge of the bigger picture of BU’s research, and also to understand the importance of REF and how it works in practice.  You do spend quite a bit of time chasing colleagues to put their outputs on BRIAN for REF compliance but hopefully they forgive you!”

Professor Adele Ladkin – UOA 24 Output Champion

“As a UoA 17 impact champion, I work closely with the UoA 17 impact team to encourage the development of a culture of impact. I try to pop into Department / research group meetings when I can to discuss impact, and I’ve enjoyed meeting people with a whole range of research interests. Sometimes it can be tough to engage people with impact – understandably; everyone is busy – so it’s important to be enthusiastic about the need for our BU research to reach the public. Overall, the role is about planting the seeds to get researchers thinking about the impact their work might have in the future (as well as the impact they have already had, sometimes without realising!)”

Dr Rafaelle Nicholson – UOA 17 Impact Champion

How to apply

All those interested should put forward a short case (suggested length of one paragraph) as to why they are interested in the role and what they think they could bring to it. These should be emailed to ref@bournemouth.ac.uk by noon Wednesday 10th June 2026.

Further detail on the role, the process of recruitment and selection criteria can be found here:

Role Descriptor

Process and criteria for selection

For further information please contact ref@bournemouth.ac.uk or a member of the current UOA Team with queries.

Geography and Environmental Studies academics – would you like to get more involved in preparing our next REF submission?

REF Subjects, Research assessment

We are currently recruiting for an Output Champion and Impact Champion to help support preparation for our next REF Submission to UoA14: Geography and Environmental Studies.

The deadline for expressions of interest is 9 June 2026. The roles are recruited through an open and transparent process, which gives all academic staff the opportunity to put themselves forward. Applications from underrepresented groups are particularly welcome.

We are currently preparing submissions to ten UoAs. Each UoA has a leadership team with at least one leader, output and impact champion. The leadership team are supported by a panel of reviewers who assess the research from the unit. This includes a diverse range of research outputs (including journal articles, books and chapters, films, digital artefacts etc) and impact case studies.

 

 

 

 

 

All roles require a level of commitment which is recognised accordingly with time to review, attend meetings, and take responsibility for tasks.

Undertaking a UOA role can be enjoyable and rewarding as two of our current champions testify:

“As UOA Outputs Champion you develop a detailed knowledge of all the great work that colleagues are doing related to the subject, and the different outlets used for disseminating their work.  You get to know what research is going on across BU, and it’s interesting to see the differences between disciplines.  It’s a good way develop your knowledge of the bigger picture of BU’s research, and also to understand the importance of REF and how it works in practice.  You do spend quite a bit of time chasing colleagues to put their outputs on BRIAN for REF compliance but hopefully they forgive you!”

Professor Adele Ladkin – UOA 24 Output Champion

“As a UoA 17 impact champion, I work closely with the UoA 17 impact team to encourage the development of a culture of impact. I try to pop into Department / research group meetings when I can to discuss impact, and I’ve enjoyed meeting people with a whole range of research interests. Sometimes it can be tough to engage people with impact – understandably; everyone is busy – so it’s important to be enthusiastic about the need for our BU research to reach the public. Overall, the role is about planting the seeds to get researchers thinking about the impact their work might have in the future (as well as the impact they have already had, sometimes without realising!)”

Dr Rafaelle Nicholson – UOA 17 Impact Champion

How to apply

All those interested should put forward a short case (suggested length of one paragraph) as to why they are interested in the role and what they think they could bring to it. These should be emailed to ref@bournemouth.ac.uk by noon Tuesday 9th June 2026.

Further detail on the roles, the process of recruitment and selection criteria can be found here:

Output Champion Impact Champion
Role Descriptor Role Descriptor
Process and criteria for selection Process and criteria for selection

For further information please contact ref@bournemouth.ac.uk or a member of the current UOA Team with queries.

REF mock exercise 2026 – nominate your research outputs on BRIAN

BRIAN, REF Subjects, Research assessment

The next Research Excellence Framework (REF) mock exercise opens today. Following the success of our REF21 submission, we have ambitious plans to include the majority of eligible staff in the submission, whilst increasing the quality of the research submitted.

The 2026 exercise will be our third formal mock exercise in our preparations for REF 2029.

Anyone who conducts or supports research is invited to nominate up to five research outputs to the exercise. We encourage the nomination of a diverse range of output types, including, but not limited to, journal articles, conference proceedings, books, chapters, films, performances, compositions, digital artefacts and any other output which is the product of original research, which has been published since 1 January 2021.

Outputs can be nominated for review between 26 May and 22 June 2026. Guidance on how to nominate outputs on BRIAN can be found on the REF 2026 Mock exercise page.

Points to note:

  • Outputs can be nominated to more than one Unit of Assessment (UoA) for review. Nominators should ensure that outputs are reviewed by all relevant BU UoAs where the output meets the REF UoA descriptors
  • Outputs that have previously been reviewed by a UoA as part of a previous mock exercise should not be nominated to that UoA Individuals can view the 2023 and 2024 mock exercises in BRIAN to check which of their outputs have already been reviewed.

Nominated outputs will be allocated to a panel of reviewers, and authors will be able to receive feedback on the overall shape of their outputs profile and advice on how to strengthen and position their future outputs.

More information on the 2026 mock exercise can be found on the REF 2026 Mock exercise page.

For queries relating to the mock exercise, including requests for access to additional UoA exercises on BRIAN, please contact REF@bournemouth.ac.uk.

For advice on output(s) selection and if an output meets the UoA descriptors, please contact the relevant UoA Team(s).

First publication for two CMWH PhD students

NHS, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to CMWH doctoral student Jennah Evans who has published the first paper from her PhD in the Journal of Human Lactation. The scoping review protocol outlines a transparent and reproducible method for investigating the relationship between stress and the human milk ejection reflex, addressing a significant knowledge gap in the literature.  Jennah and her supervisors (including CMWH member Dr Dominique Mylod) are also aiming to improve understanding of D-MER, a challenging condition associated with intense negative emotions during breastfeeding.

Congratulations are also due a second  CMWH doctoral student Louise Barton, whose paper ‘Southampton’s approach to smoking cessation has been accepted by MIDIRS Midwifery Digest and the paper will be pubished its June issue.  Smoking during pregnancy is the leading yet preventable causes a whole range of illnesses.  Louise’s PhD is an assessment of Southampton’s Midwifery-led Integrated Antenatal Care Pathway.  Her PhD is supervised by CMWH academics Dr. Daisy Wiggins and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
References:
Evans, J.M., Paul, R., Wezyk, A.B., Mylod, D. (2026) Exploring the Association Between Stress and the Experience of the Milk Ejection Reflex: A Scoping Review Protocol. Journal of Human Lactation Online First https://doi.org/10.1177/08903344261433846

Barton, L., van Teijlingen, E., Wiggins, D., Loader, R.-A., White, A. (2026) Southampton’s approach to smoking cessation, MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, 36(2): 145–151.

New chapters published in maternity book on risk

international, PG research, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

A few days ago Palgrave Macmillen published Risk and Uncertainty in Maternity Care: Putting Risk in Its Place.  This edited book examines the way risk is defined and employed in maternity care across the world.  The 25 chapters reflect in different ways on how the management of risk shapes the organization and experience of maternity services. Drawing from investigations of the way risk operates in contemporary society, the authors challenge taken-for-granted understandings of risk in maternity care and early parenting, showing how risk is not simply a value-free assessment of potential harms but is, in fact, a complex social and political way of seeing, knowing about, and performing pregnancy and birth.

This edited volume contains two chapters which have co-authors associated with BU.  Chapter 15 ‘Communicating Maternity Risks Using Social Media in England and Australia‘ is written by Sheena Byrom, Mandie Scamell, Hannah Dahlen, Joanne Rack.  This chapter addresses childbirth in the digital age. Over the last two decades, social media—a group of internet-based applications that facilitate the development and sharing of information—revolutionised the way we connect and communicate. These new media are now an ever-present part of our daily lives. The authors explore how social media shapes the way risk is understood by all of those involved in pregnancy, labour, and birth.Sheena Byrom holds an honourary doctorate from Bournemouth University, and Joanne Rack is doing her for-year Clinical Doctorate in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) specialising in personalised care for women of advanced maternal age. This PhD study is matched-funded by University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) NHS Foundation Trust and Bournemouth University.

Whilst chapter 16 From Uncertainty to Risk: How Mass Media in the UK and the US Generate Fear of Childbirth is co-authored by professors Hundley and van Teijlingen who are co-leads of the CMWH.  This chapter addresses the growing intolerance for the uncertainties associated with childbirth. While research has yet to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between media representations of pregnancy and birth and societal views of the childbirth experience, analysis of mass media accounts of childbirth can help explain why those involved in childbirth—maternity service users and providers alike—increasingly define birth as a site of risk. Existing studies of the representation of birth in mass media allow us to examine how the complex interaction between media, culture, and birth amplifies perceptions of risk. The authors illustrate the ways mass media influence, not just attitudes towards birth, but the way birth is managed.

 

References:

  1. Byrom, S., Scamell, M., Dahlen, H., Rack, J. (2026)  Communicating Maternity Risks Using Social Media in England and Australia [Chapter 15], In: Scamell, M., De Vries, R, Coxon, K. (eds) Critical Studies of Risk and Uncertainty in Maternity Care : Perspectives from Australia, Europe, and the United States, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 309-326.
  2. van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., De Vries R. (2026) From uncertainty to risk: how mass media in the UK and the US generate fear of childbirth [Chapter 16], In: Scamell, M., De Vries, R, Coxon, K. (eds) Critical Studies of Risk and Uncertainty in Maternity Care : Perspectives from Australia, Europe, and the United States, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 327-346.

BU academics publish in Nepal national newspaper

Delicious links, international

Dr. Pramod Regmi and prof. Edwin van Teijlingen had a long article published today related to their work on migrant workers in Nepal.  The article ‘Nepal’s migrant workers: Data the new government can’t ignore’ appeared in both the print edition and the online version of The Kathmandu Post, which is one of the three English-language national papers in Nepal.  Both academics are based in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences.
https://kathmandupost.com/columns/2026/04/15/working-abroad-comes-at-a-cost-to-migrant-workers-health

New BU Physiology paper

BRIAN, PG research, writing

Congratulations to HEMS’s Dr. Malika Felton, Dr. Vikram Mohan and Prof. Vanora Hundley on the recent publication of their academic paper ‘Acute cardiovascular responses to slow and deep breathing in normotensive men and women‘ [1].  The BU authors outline that there differences in cardiovascular responses to different methods of slow and deep breathing (SDB) delivery.  They query whether utilising a multi-parametric approach to measuring cardiovascular variables reveal new/different responses.  Their key findings are that all SDB conditions elicited similar cardiovascular responses to each other when compared with spontaneous breathing. However, lower breathing frequencies elicit greater blood pressure oscillations, and higher breathing frequencies (∼8 breaths min−1) may not fully optimise cardiovascular responses. This has implications on the practice of SDB for management of hypertension.

Well done!

Prof.Edwin van Teijlingen

Reference:

  1. Felton, M., Mohan, V., & Hundley, V. A. (2026). Acute cardiovascular responses to slow and deep breathing in normotensive men and women. Experimental Physiology, 01–24. https://doi.org/10.1113/EP093086

Gender and street names

Delicious links, international, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Last week I was contacted by a Dutch journalist, Els Knaapen, about the live and work of Francijntje de Kadt.  The latter was the first chair of the Dutch Midwifery Association and I had come across her 30 years ago as part of my own PhD research.  Els was interested in the contribution Francijntje had made in the town of Enkhuizen after her retirement as a midwife.  As part of a radio programma called ‘Meer Vrouw op Straat’, refering to the fact that too few women have been given streetnames to honour their contributions to society.  Els was calling for the Enkhuizen town council to name a straat after Francijntje, just like the town of Vlaardingen had done a decade ago.
Some 15 years ago I proposed to the city of Vlaardingen argueing that Francijntje de Kadt deserved a street name, as highlighted in an earlier BU Research Blog. With my recommendation I sent the ‘Street Name Committee’ in Vlaardingen my Dutch-language publications on the work of Francijntje de Kadt [1-3]. A few months later the secretary to the Street Name Committee wrote to say that my proposal had been accepted and that her name would be given to a street in a new development of the former local hospital grounds.
Yesterday the radio programme, which is part of a progressive station BNNVARA, was aired in which Els Knaapen justified why Enkhuizen needs to honour its former citizen.  In Enkhuizen Francijntje was active in maternity care education and she was a member of the Assocation for Women’s Votes.  All this after she retited from being the town’s midwife of Vlaardingen.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
References:
  1. van Teijlingen, E. (2002) Ondergang eerste pensioenfonds voor vroedvrouwen (in Dutch: Decline of the first pension fund for midwives), Tijdschrift voor Verloskundigen (in Dutch: Journal for Midwives), 27(12): 684.
  2. van Teijlingen, E.R. (2003a) Berichten – Francijntje de Kadt (1858-1929), Tijdschrift voor Verloskundigen (in Dutch: Journal for Midwives), 28(12): 630-633.
  3. van Teijlingen, E.R. (2003b) Francijntje de Kadt (1858-1929). Vroedvrouw te Vlaardingen en eerste voorzitter van de Nederlandsche vroedvrouwenvereeniging, Tijd-schrift (in Dutch: Time-Magazine) 88: 14-23.

New academic paper on Nepal

international, open access, Publishing, writing

Yesterday the international journal Health Policy & Planning published our latest article with the title ‘Understanding the formulation of non-communicable disease policies in Nepal: A qualitative study‘ [1].  The paper is part of the PhD work (at the University of Hudderfield) by the first author, Dr. Anju Vaidya, who is originally from Nepal. Anju’s thesis was supervised by Prof. Padam Simkhada (University of Chester), Prof. Andre Lee (The University of Sheffield) and by Bournemouth University’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

 

The paper recognises that there is limited evidence about the process through which health policies were formulated in Nepal. This study used Kingdon’s multiple streams framework to explore how NCDs (non-communicable diseases) were recognised and prioritised, how policy alternatives were decided, how policy windows were opened, and which contextual factors influenced the policy formulation process.  Anju’s PhD included a qualitative study to gain a comprehensive understanding of the formulation of major NCD-related policies in Nepal. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 key stakeholders, and policy documents were analysed using framework analysis.

The NCDs were gradually prioritised through the convergence of global and local evidence, sustained advocacy, and international commitments. Policymakers encountered several challenges, such as competing health priorities, the chronic nature of NCDs, donor preferences for communicable diseases, financial constraints, and multisectoral complexities of NCDs. The Package of Essential Non-communicable diseases (PEN) interventions were adopted as a policy alternative, informed by global evidence, World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, and lessons from other countries.  While coordinated efforts by stakeholders brought the problem, policy and politics streams together, the role of policy entrepreneurs was found to be less relevant in Nepal’s context.

Health Policy & Planning is an Open Access journal, hence the paper is available worldwide to anybody with internet access.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

References:

  1. Vaidya, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Lee, A.C.K. (2026) Understanding the formulation of non-communicable disease policies in Nepal: A qualitative study, Health Policy and Planning, [online first] czag048, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czag048

New HIV paper by BU PhD student

international, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

The editor of HIV Research & Clinical Practice informed us that the paper ‘Stigma in UK health care: A key barrier to reaching zero HIV transmission by 2030’ has been accepted for publication [1].   This paper is based on the PhD research currently conducted by Mr. Tom Weeks in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS).  Tom’s thesis focuses on the perceptions of stigmatisation of People Living with HIV in care settings in the UK and the kind of education health care staff (clinical and non-clinical) receive in relation to HIV.  His long-term aim in the PhD is to help improve education to reduce such stigma.  Tom is being supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. 

Both supervisors have a long experience in studying social and health promotion aspects of HIV and AIDS.  Thirty years ago Prof. van Teijlingen worked in the NHS as a researcher in the Centre for HIV/AIDS and Drugs Studies based in Edinburgh.  Whilst Dr. Regmi conducted his PhD research on sexual health and health promotion in young people in Nepal.  Both supervisors themselves have published widely on the topic of HIV and AIDS [2-23].  The first of these many publication was a letter on community care for people living with HIV in the community which was published in the Lancet in 1993 [2]. 

 

 

References

  1. Weeks, T., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2026) Stigma in UK health care: A key barrier to reaching zero HIV transmission by 2030, HIV Research & Clinical Practice (accepted).
  2. Huby, G, van Teijlingen E, Porter M., Bury, J (1993) Care for HIV in community (letter) Lancet 342: 1297-1298.
  3. Huby, G, van Teijlingen, E, Robertson J, Porter, AM (1993) Community care & support for women, In: Johnson F & Johnstone M. (Eds.) HIV Infection in Women, Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 123-32.
  4. Bury, J.K., Ross, A., van Teijlingen, E., Porter, AMD, Bath, G. (1996) Lothian GPs, HIV infection & Drug Misuse: Epidemiology, Experience & Confidence 1988-93 Health Bulletin, 54: 258-269.
  5. Huby, GO, van Teijlingen E, Porter, AMD, Bury, J. (1997) Co-ordination of care on discharge from hospital into the community for patients with HIV/AIDS in Lothian, Health Bulletin, 55:338-50.
  6. van Teijlingen, E, Huby, G. (1998) Evaluation within a policy-making and contracting culture: reflections of practice, In: Barbour R.S., Huby G. (Eds.), Meddling with mythology: AIDS & the social construction of knowledge, London: Routledge, 218-33.
  7. Lowis, G, van Teijlingen, E, Sheremata, W. (2000) AIDS in developing countries: A comparative epidemiological analysis, In: Rose, J. (Ed.), Population Problems, Reading: Gordon & Breach Science Publishers: 133-61
  8. Scotland, G., van Teijlingen E., van der Pol, M, Smith, WCS. (2003) A review of studies assessing costs & consequences of interventions to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa, Aids, 17: 1045-52.
  9. Nicholson, D., van Teijlingen E. (2006) Comparing level of expenditure on HIV health promotion & incidence of HIV in Greater Glasgow & Lothian Health Boards (1988-98), Salusvita, 25(1): 13-22 usc.br/Edusc/colecoes/revistas/salusvita_pdf/salusvita_v25_n.1_2006.pdf
  10. Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E. (2008) Sexual & reproductive health status among young people in Nepal: opportunities & barriers for sexual health education & service utilisation, Kathmandu University Medical Journal 6(2): 248-256.
  11. Wasti, S.P., Simkhada, P.P, Randall, J., van Teijlingen E. (2009) Issues & Challenges of HIV/AIDS Prevention & Treatment Programme in Nepal, Global Journal of Health Science 1(2): 62-72. http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/gjhs/article/viewFile/2460/3474
  12. Regmi P, Simkhada PP, van Teijlingen E (2010) “Boys Remain Prestigious, Girls become Prostitutes”: Socio-Cultural Context of Relationships & Sex among Young People in Nepal, Global Journal of Health Science 2(1): 60-72.
  13. Regmi P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E. (2010) “There are too many naked pictures found in papers and on the net”: Factors encouraging pre-marital sex among young people of Nepal. Health Science Journal 4(3): 162-174. hsj.gr/volume4/issue3/437.pdf
  14. Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E. (2010) Dating and Sex among Emerging Adults in Nepal. Journal of Adolescence Research 26 (6): 675-700.
  15. Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E, Simkhada, P., Acharya, D. (2010) Barriers to sexual health services for young people in Nepal. Journal of Health Population & Nutrition 28: 619-27.
  16. Wasti, SP, Simkhada, PP, van Teijlingen E (Eds.) (2015) Socio-Cultural Aspects of HIV/ AIDS. The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu: Soc Sci Baha/Himal Books: 47-62.
  17. Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Dhungel, D., Ghale, G., Bhatta, G.K. (2016) Knowing is not enough: Migrant workers’ spouses vulnerability to HIV, SAARC Journal of Tuberculosis, Lung Diseases & HIV/AIDS 8(1):9-15.
  18. Ochillo, M., van Teijlingen, E., Hind, M. (2017) Influence of faith-based organisations on HIV prevention strategies in Africa: systematic review. African Health Sciences 17(3): 753-61.
  19. Sathian, B., Sreedharan, J., Asim, M., Menezes, R.G., van Teijlingen, E., Unnikrishnan, B. (2018) Estimation of burden of people living with HIV/AIDS in Kerala state, India. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 8(3): 738-44.
  20. Hamidi, A., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) HIV epidemic in Libya: Identifying gaps, Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, 20 :1-5 https://doi.org/10.1177/23259582211053964 .
  21. Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E.R., Silwal, R.C., Dhital, R. (2022) Role of social media for sexual communication and sexual behaviors: A focus group study among young people in Nepal. Journal of Health Promotion, 10(1):153–166. https://doi.org/10.3126/jhp.v10i1.50995
  22. Hamidi, A., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2023) Facilitators and barriers to condom use in Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review, Journal of Public Health, 32: 1651-81 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-01923-3
  23. Hamidi, A., Regmi, P, van Teijlingen, E. (2024) Islamic perspectives on HIV: a scoping review, Discover Social Science & Health 4:6 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s44155-024-00063-7.pdf

Building Ventures from Bricks: Why LEGO® Serious Play® Belongs at the Heart of Entrepreneurship Education

BU Challenges, Business Engagement, Knowledge Exchange, Student Engagement

There is something quietly radical about placing a box of LEGO bricks in front of an entrepreneurship student and asking them to build what it feels like to start a business as a woman. It looks playful. It feels unfamiliar. And that is precisely the point.

Gendered barriers to enterprise, unequal access to networks and capital, and the legitimacy penalties faced by women founders are not peripheral concerns — they are central to how entrepreneurship actually works. Yet they are among the hardest things to surface in a conventional classroom. Lectures can name them; discussions can debate them. But neither easily reaches the experiential, affective layer where structural disadvantage is felt and processed. LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) –  a structured, facilitated methodology in which participants construct physical models as a vehicle for thinking and sense-making – offers a compelling answer.

The theoretical roots of LSP lie in constructionism (Papert & Harel, 1991 cited in Imholz and Petrosino, 2012), extending Piaget’s Constructivism, the premise that humans learn most powerfully when actively making something shareable. In entrepreneurship, this matters enormously. The field is inherently uncertain, relational and situated (Neck & Greene, 2011), demanding that practitioners navigate ambiguity and construct meaning from incomplete information — precisely what traditional pedagogies rarely train students to do.

LSP addresses this through embodied cognition — the well-established view that cognitive processes are rooted in the body’s interactions with the world (Barsalou, 2008; Wilson, 2002). When students physically manipulate bricks, they activate neural pathways associated with memory, association and imagination, surfacing tacit knowledge that verbal reasoning cannot access. The cognitive and reflective processes generated map directly onto the experiential learning cycle entrepreneurship education has long sought to replicate (Kolb, 1984).

Nowhere is LSP’s capacity to make the invisible visible more valuable than when the subject is gender and structural disadvantage. When a student is asked to build what barriers look like — giving them height, weight and spatial relationship — something categorically different becomes possible. The model externalises and legitimises the experience: it makes the barrier an object in the room for collective examination, rather than a contested assertion subject to instant pushback.

The LSP rule that the meaning of a model belongs only to its creator — and that no one may impose their own interpretation (Gkogkidis & Dacre, 2021) — creates protective distance between the student and their experience, allowing difficult realities to be surfaced through metaphor before being verbalised. Reduced perceived risk is precisely what enables more diverse voices to emerge (Gauntlett, 2011). Benesova’s (2023) study at the University of Leeds evidences this: students from high power-distance cultures reported that building gave them expression, bypassing the social hierarchies of the seminar, with one noting it was “much easier to build it than say it.”

The Entrepreneurial Learning Case

Fox et al. (2018) identify active, reflective, situated, and crisis-based learning as the key dimensions that effective entrepreneurship pedagogy must address, finding that digital simulations perform poorly on the affective and reflective dimensions and almost entirely fail to simulate failure and uncertainty. LSP does not share these limitations. Ball et al.’s (2021) case study from Northumbria University saw students complete a LEGO task with pieces deliberately missing — simulating resource constraints and ambiguity — and subsequently identify 68 distinct entrepreneurial skills and competencies including risk-taking, creativity and leadership. Creativity here means recombining knowledge, recognising patterns and imagining alternatives (Fillis & Rentschler, 2010) — and material, exploratory engagement of the kind LSP provides is precisely what develops creative confidence and problem-solving capability (Rauth et al., 2010). Zenk et al. (2018) went further still, designing an entire innovation course around LSP — guiding students through ideation, prototyping, pivot questioning and pre-mortem analysis in ways conventional course design cannot match.

Where LSP makes its most distinctive contribution is in the quality of reflection it generates. Gkogkidis and Dacre (2023) frame the four-step core process — pose question, construct, share meaning, reflect — as a pedagogical architecture that operationalises constructivist learning values. For universities seeking to embed entrepreneurial thinking across their culture, active, reflexive pedagogies of this kind are central to the entrepreneurial university mission (Guerrero & Urbano, 2012). When students have physically constructed the systems that disadvantage them, the subsequent reflection is grounded in something concrete and shared, allowing a group to move from “do these barriers exist?” to “here they are — now what do we do?” That shift, from debate to design thinking, is precisely the mode entrepreneurship demands.

In conclusion, gender, network access and legitimacy inequality do not sit comfortably in a traditional seminar. They are too personal, too politically charged, too easily deflected. LSP creates conditions in which these conversations happen differently: externalising structural barriers, equalising participation and protecting less powerful voices. For entrepreneurship educators serious about structural inequality, the bricks are doing serious work.

References

Ball, S., Quan, R., & Clegg, S. (2025). A case study of experiential entrepreneurial learning through LEGO® play. 20(1), Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Northumbria University.         https://doi.org/10.34190/ecie.20.1.3942        

Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59(1), 617–645. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639

Benesova, N. (2023). LEGO® Serious Play® in management education. Cogent Education, 10(2), 2262284. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2262284

Fillis, I., & Rentschler, R. (2010). The role of creativity in entrepreneurship. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 18(1), 49–81. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218495810000501

Fox, J., Pittaway, L., & Uzuegbunam, I. (2018). Simulations in entrepreneurship education: Serious games and learning through play. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127417737285

Gkogkidis V., and Dacre N. (2023). The educator’s LSP journey: creating exploratory learning environments for responsible management education using Lego Serious Play. Emerald Open Research, 1(12) No Pagination Specified, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/EOR-12-2023-0004

Guerrero, M., & Urbano, D. (2012). The development of an entrepreneurial university. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 37(1), 43–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-010-9171-x

Imholz, S. and Petrosino, A. (2012) Teacher Observations on the Implementation of the Tools of the Mind Curriculum in the Classroom: Analysis of Interviews Conducted over a One-Year Period. Creative Education, 3, 185-192. doi: 10.4236/ce.2012.32029.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall.

Neck, H. M., & Greene, P. G. (2011). Entrepreneurship education: Known worlds and new frontiers. Journal of Small Business Management, 49(1), 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2010.00314.x

Rauth, I., Köppen, E., Jobst, B., & Meinel, C. (2010). Design thinking: An educational model towards creative confidence. In T. Taura & Y. Nagai (Eds.), DS 66-2: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC 2010). The Design Society.

Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4), 625–636. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196322

Zenk, L., Hynek, N., Schreder, G., Zenk, A., Pausits, A., & Steiner, G. (2018). Designing innovation courses in higher education using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 5(4), 244–263. https://doi.org/10.18646/2056.54.18-019

 

Four BU students at national midwifery conference

conferences, PG research, Women's Academic Network

This week four postgraduate midwifery students from Bournemouth University attended the Royal College of Midwives annual Education & Research conference in London.  Their contributions included studies on: (1) ‘A Unique Approach to Smoking Cessation During Pregnancy’ by Ph.D. student Louise Barton; (2) Investigating how women make decisions about prescribed psychiatric medication use during pregnancy by M.Res. student Jessica Correia; (3) Harnessing midwives’ research delivery expertise to encourage medics’ participation in research’ by M.Res. student Susara Blunden; and (4) ‘Personalised care for women of advanced maternal age, from conception to postnatal care: A mixed-methods study’ by Ph.D. student Joanne Rack. Joanne was also at this conference in her capacity of the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Practising Midwife. 

Congratulations to these postgraduate students and their supervisors.

Profs. Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

 

INRC book roundtable/presentation by Drs Jonathan Cole and Catherine Talbot, Wednesday 22/04/2026, 13:00h, P426

Knowledge Exchange, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research themes

Dear colleagues,

We warmly invite you to the event organised by the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre on Wednesday, the 22 of April 2026, from 13:00 h to 15:00 h at P426 (Poole House).

The exciting event will focus on the interface between clinical and social neuroscience from the standpoint of new neuroscientific and technological leaps. The schedule is:

13.00 – 13.45 Dr Jonathan Cole (Visiting Professor, Bournemouth University) book presentation and roundtable: Hard Talk – When speech is difficult.

13.35 – 14.00 Coffee break.

14.00 – 14.45 Dr Catherine Talbot (Senior Lecturer, Bournemouth University) talk: Dementia in the digital age: the promise and pitfalls of social technologies.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Ellen Seiss, eseiss@bournemouth.ac.uk or Emili Balaguer-Ballester, eb-ballester@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Thank you very much; we are looking forward to debating with you there.

The 4th INRC symposium: “From Clinical Applications to Neuro-Inspired Computation”, took place last Wednesday, 16th of January 2026. Thank you very much for your interest and especially to the fantastic speakers. It was great to see you there, and we hope you enjoyed it.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili, on behalf of all of us.

Prof Marahatta promoting BU-Nepal collaboration

international, Publishing, writing

On Monday 9th March Prof. Sujan Marahatta visited Bournmouth University (BU) to speak about ‘Strengthening BU-Nepal collaboration AND Nepal’s experience of competency-based health professional education’.  Prof. Marahatta is the Director of the Medical Education Commission in Nepal overseeing the education of health professionals in 15 areas including Medicine, Physiotherapy, Nursing and Midwifery. He spoke about long partnership between Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) and BU.  This partnership is formalised in a Memoradum of Agreement (MoA) and over the years it has included joint research projects, staff-student exchanges (funded by ERASMUS+ and Turing scheme) and offering guest lectures at each others institutions.

One of the jointly conducted studies which Prof. Marahatta highlighted was the work on CPD (Continuous Professional Development) in nursing and midwifery in Nepal.  Research on CPD started a decade ago and culminated in several papers [1-4]. The research was combined with sustained advocacy and stakeholder engagement, and resulted in the Nepal Nursing Council (NNC) formally introduced mandatory CPD as a requirement for nursing and midwifery re-registration earlier this year (15 January 2026).  The National Guideline on Continuing Nursing and Midwifery Education (CNME) CPD for Nurses and Midwives refer to our work conducted by academics based at Bournemouth University.  This is the foundation for one of BU’s REF Impact Case Studies for 2029.

Amongst other studies, Prof. Marahatta also highlighted a recent publication which was  jointly authored between BU’s professors Clark and Hundley and himself on pain catastrophising in nulliparous women in Nepal, the importance for childbirth [5].  Prof. Marahatta’s  visit was held in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS) in the Bournemouth Gateway Building.

References:

  1. Simkhada B, Mackay S, Khatri R, Sharma CK., Pokhrel T, Marahatta SB., Angell C, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P. (2016) Continual Professional Development (CPD): Improving Health Prospect15 (3):1-3.
  2. Khatri, RJ, van Teijlingen, E, Marahatta, SB, Simkhada, P, Mackay, S and Simkhada, B. Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities for Continuing Professional Development for Nurses: A Qualitative Study with Senior Nurse Leaders in Nepal. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences. 2021 7(1):15-29. 
  3. Simkhada B, van Teijlingen E, Pandey A, Sharma CK, Simkhada P, Singh DR (2023) Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Continuing Professional Development among Nepalese Nurses: A Focus Group Study Nursing Open.10(5).
  4. Simkhada B, van Teijlingen E, Sharma C, Pandey A, Simkhada P. (2023) Nepal needs Continuing Professional Development for Re-registration in Nursing and Midwifery Journal of Nepal Health Research Council, 21(60):541-42.
  5. Clark CJ, Marahatta SB, Hundley VA. (2024) The prevalence of pain catastrophising in nulliparous women in Nepal; the importance for childbirth. PLoS ONE 19(8): e0308129. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308129.

Interdisciplinary research: Not straightforward?

Fusion themes, international, Publishing, REF Subjects, writing

Worldwide there is a growing interest in interdisciplinary research, especially to help deal with large questions in life, the so-called wicked problems.  These wicked problems (or questions) include climate disasters and global warming, globalisation, the drop in biodiversity, inequalities and international conflicts.  Interdisciplinary research increasingly popular and widely promoted by grant-giving bodies, the UK REF (Research Excellence Framework), research councils and universities, to name but a few stakeholders.

However, it is often ignored, that interdisciplinary research presents significant challenges for discipline-specific experts.  Doing interdisciplinary research requires specialised skills, team-player personality traits, and the ability to transcend one’s own academic boundaries.  We have highlighted in the past that common barriers include managing conflicting research philosophies, navigating, and overcoming, methodological, and communication differences [1].  Those who have been involved in interdisciplinary research will agree that is not an easy option for the individual discipline expert. It requires individual skills, ability to see beyond one’s discipline and perhaps personality characteristics such as a great team player. Interdisciplinary research may involve a mixed-methods approach underpinned by conflicting, and according to some incommensurable, research philosophies.

It is also the case that some disciplines are perhaps more familiar with interdisciplinary working, disciplines such as Public Health [2] are traditionally less theory focused and more solution driven.  But even in Public Health as a broad-ranging discipline covering sub-disciplines such as epidemiology, health education, law, management, health psychology, medical statistics, sociology of health & illness and a wide-range of research methods, conducting interdisciplinary research is not necessarily easy [3].

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Pramod Regmi both are in the School of Health & Care, and Dr. Shanti Farrington, who is based in the School of Psychology.

 

References:

  1. Shanker S, Wasti SP, Ireland J, Regmi PR, Simkhada PP, van Teijlingen E. (2021) The Interdisciplinary Research Team not the Interdisciplinarist. Europasian Journal of Medical Science. 3(2):111-5.
  2. Wasti, S. P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2020) Public Health is truly interdisciplinary. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 6(1):21-22.
  3. van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P., Adhikary, P., Aryal, N., Simkhada, P. (2019). Interdisciplinary Research in Public Health: Not quite straightforward. Health Prospect, 18(1), 4-7. https://doi.org/10.3126/hprospect.v18i1.19337