Agile Methodologies (Lou)

AGILE METHODOLOGIES

By Luisa Sarmiento

Word Cloud

'If your teaching week were a sprint, what would it look like?'

Introduction to Agile in Education

• Originally from software development.

• Focus: Collaboration, adaptability, and improvement.

• In education: Supports student-centered and flexible learning.

“Think of teaching like managing a project: You have goals, tasks, a timeline, and stakeholders (your students). Agile helps manage this efficiently.”

Agile Values in Education

Original Agile Value	In Education
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools	Focus on relationships and student voice
Working software over comprehensive documentation	Focus on learning over paperwork
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation	Teacher-student collaboration over rigid curricula
Responding to change over following a plan.	Flexibility to adapt based on feedback

Open Ended

“Which ones resonate with your teaching?"

"Which ones feel challenging?”

Agile Frameworks: Scrum & Kanban

Scrum in Education:

• Roles:

  • Product Owner = Teacher (sets learning goals)

  • Team = Students

  • Scrum Master = Teacher or a student (facilitates progress)

• Sprints: Short cycles of learning or project work (1–2 weeks)

Agile Frameworks: Scrum & Kanban

Kanban in Education:

• Visual board with columns: “To Do – In Progress – Done”

• Helps track learning tasks or group projects (paper or digital)

Open Ended

Build a sample Kanban board for a short activity.

User Stories

Definition: A way to describe learning from the student’s point of view.

Structure:

“As a [student], I want [goal] so that [benefit].”

Examples:

• “As a student, I want to present my project so that I can improve my public speaking.”

Open Ended

Write 2–3 user stories based on your subject/class.

Sprint Planning Simulation

Objective: Plan a lesson or unit as a sprint.

Steps:

1. Define a user story (e.g., “As a student, I want to research a country so I can create a travel blog.”)

2. Identify 3–5 tasks (research, write, design, present).

3. Set a timeline (1-week sprint).

4. Define “done” (clear criteria of completion).

Retrospective

Definition: A structured reflection after a learning cycle.

Simple questions:

• What went well?

• What didn’t go well?

• What can we improve?

Open Ended

Using sticky notes, think about a task or project you worked with your students and answer the questions below.

Suggested Takeaways:

• Agile helps build student ownership of learning.

• Tools like Kanban, sprints, and user stories promote clarity and motivation.

• Start small: Try Agile with one project or unit first.