EDgility

The Core of Agile in Education

Intro

In our chapter Getting Agile at School in Agile and Lean Concepts for Teaching and Learning, four of us LAS faculty members presented what we felt at the time were the central tenets, for us, of an agile mindset in education.

We expanded on the core by describing ten practices of the agile mindset. Drawing on early presentations of agility, particularly the Agile Manifesto, we thought that if educators were aware of certain thinking associated with agility, they could, when given the choice, do a little more of this over that. For example, when presented with the opportunity to structure work, aim for a collaborative instead of go-it-alone mindset; when creating class rituals, aim for a bit more trust than control, and so on.

Below is the core, as we conceptualized it in 2019, and the ten practices. Note that even in the article we suggest we may have missed some key practices. But we think these do a fairly good job of getting one started in a fresh mindset about education.

Values

These are our values, the core of the mindset we’re working toward:

  • EXPLORATION - Exploration and play over tests and perfection;
  • GROWTH - Growth and rework over assessment reports without corresponding mechanisms to improve identified weaknesses;
  • SELF-REGULATION - Student-driven reflection and improvement over teacher directives; and
  • LIFE WORTHY LEARNING - Learning that supports additional learning over detailed course content.

Preferences

  • EXPLORATION - Exploration over fixed content
  • GROWTH MINDSET - Growth over stasis
  • TRUST - Self-regulation over teacher control
  • TRANSPARENCY - Visibility over obscurity
  • ADAPTABILITY - Flexibility over rigidity
  • SMALLIFY - Quick, workable iterations and feedback over big plans
  • VALUE - Valuable learning over convenient assessments
  • COLLABORATION - Working together over competing against
  • REDO - Reflection and progress over right and done
  • UPLIFT - Problems as opportunity over problems as problems

Reference

Magnuson, P., Tihen, B. Cosgrove, C, & Patton, D. (2019). (Getting Agile at School. In Agile and Lean Concepts for Teaching and Learning)[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-2751-3_6]. Parsons, D. & MacCallum, K. (Eds.). Singapore: Springer.

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