There are a number of similarities in the dysfunctions of education and business (individual targets, fear of failure, plan-driven, long feedback cycles to name a few). Which would give us the most value in fixing? The workplace of the education arena? The view was that we, as coaches, trainers and practitioners are treating the symptom when working at the corporate level.

I am very grateful for those who attended and was brilliantly surprised to learn that this is already happening in places in the world. Aaron Sanders shared how his wife's 4th grade class employs much of the scrum framework.

Paul Goddard also related how his sister, a teacher, focusses curriculum on themes rather than specific learning requirements building the many elements of the wider curriculum into a particular topic - it reminded me of a vertical slice of functionality: learning about the geography and science of a volcano while tackling related mathematical problems and writing creative pieces around the subject.

Danny Kovatch also shared how a few schools in Israel have applied many of the concepts of Scrum in their learning approach. The Product Owner is the principal, the teacher plays the role of ScrumMaster and the team are the children. The yearly learning objectives become product backlog items, structured as goals rather than requirements and planned into releases of semesters with weekly sprints.

The children work in small teams facilitate by the teacher presenting back their learning at the end of the sprint/week (sprint review), followed by a retrospective and planning for the next sprint. This initiative started at High School level, with one class, expanded to two classes, then a whole year group before expanding to other schools. The results in annual tests have increased and other, softer improvements have also been noticed.

These experiences gave me (and the group I think) a feeling that there is already something here that we can build on and I can see some small tweaks I would like to experiment with. For example, if the teacher became the Product Owner and a child took it in turns to play the role of ScrumMaster for the team. The teacher could explain the learning goals ("I need you to display to me in some way that you have learned about this; acceptance criteria include a mathematical, scientific, literature and musical element"). If they have any requests they can be provided or sourced through the ScrumMaster

The question of how to deal with the individual targets required by schools, universities etc (exam marks, grades, qualifications) was raised. Personally I believe it is more than possible for an engaged teacher to judge how much and in what areas each person is contributing and improving just as it is possible for an engaged manager to see how and where individuals are contributing to team performance.

To wrap up, Sharon Bowman then got us on our feet and quickly exchanging ideas to illustrate that the more active the discussion and total engagement of the group the quicker and richer the learning.

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2 Valley schools teaching '7 Habits'

2 Valley schools incorporate popular business book's tips to urge success

16 comments by Ray Parker - Sept. 26, 2010 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

 There's a reason Chief Executive magazine named "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" the most influential business book of the 20th century and that author Stephen Covey has sold more than 15 million copies: His book motivates people.

Now, two Valley public schools - Frank Elementary in Guadalupe and Kyrene de los Cerritos Elementary in Ahwatukee Foothills - want to help their students make a "paradigm" shift in the classroom.

Both schools have launched a program called the Leader in Me, based on the habits presented in Covey's popular book.