Farewell rote, welcome robot

In September, Lego Education signed a second five-year agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Education under which the company would provide its products and equipment to more Chinese schools the ministry nominates. It is meant to enable Chinese students to "learn by playing" and improve their innovative ability.

Under the agreement, the company would provide training for teachers to help them play a better role in guiding and inspiring students to innovate.

Educators say students benefit from hands-on tools that help engage them in class and make abstract knowledge tangible.

"When students work with their hands they are engaged and are inventing, creating and building new solutions to problems," Danahy said. "Students can better understand knowledge acquired in courses like mathematics."

Danahy said he has found that in China and other Asian countries teachers are preoccupied with standard tests and rigid, structured teaching that make it difficult to introduce new methods

"Transition is very difficult because it is not one switch, one thing that allows you to move. You have to change many variables simultaneously. It is about the students' and the parents' perceptions of schools, education environments and administration," said Danahy.

Li Yatong, a math teacher with an international primary school, said that unlike teachers in Europe and the United States, teachers in Chinese primary schools teach a single subject with separate syllabuses.

"It is difficult to integrate these subjects with all other sorts of topics," she said.

The aim is to use Lego's methods to supplement regular courses in primary schools.

"We hope primary schools can use it for major subjects once a week to review the knowledge taught over the week," she said.

China's coastal areas, such as Shanghai and Zhejiang province, will be the key markets "as people there are more open to education innovation and transition", she said.

The expansion would be helped by the new generation of parents. Young Chinese parents are more concerned about their children's ability to survive in society and are keen to adopt more innovative learning techniques.

Ma Hongyan has sent her 11-year-old son to different kinds of special interest classes to foster the skills of dynamic problem solving and innovative thinking.

"I hope my son can be a critical and creative thinker," she said.

Lego sees China as a key driver for growth. Last year the company's revenue rose 13 percent to 28.6 billion Danish kroner ($4.2 billion) from 25.3 billion kroner the year before. Growth of the brand's sales in China was in the double digits, the company said, adding that it cannot provide more precise figures.

Roborobo, South Korea's largest provider of educational robots, is also expanding in China by leaps and bounds. Its bricks were first introduced to China in 2009, and the company has since worked with kindergartens, primary schools and other educational institutions to have them used routinely in classes.