3. Theoretical Foundations
When people hear the term 'agility' they usually think about the practical application of it. Agility was born out of practice, and in most cases it is used by practitioners in companies in the production of tangible products and services. It could hardly be more 'practical'. This is why it is interesting to see that agility ( in general and Scrum in particular ) makes use of diff erent concepts that have been extensively examined by many scholars in various research institutions. In this chapter we take a look at theories and concepts from learning sciences to explain where agility and learning approaches overlap and particularly why agile learning works.
The agile learning approach puts into practice a number of theories and concepts from didactic-psychological research, which have been proven to be eff ective in oft en a large number of studies. To mention a few :
- Motivation theories ( e.g. Brehm& Self, 1989 ; Deci& Ryan, 1985 ; Ryan& Deci, 2000 )
- Reactance ( e.g. Brehm 1966, 1993 )
- Goal-directed learning ( e.g. Heckhausen& Dweck, 1998 ; Lin-Siegler et al., 2016 )
- Roles and scripts ( e.g. Wecker& Fischer, 2007 )
- Self-directed learning ( e.g. Freund et al. 2004 ; Lehmann et al. 2014 )
- Feedback ( e.g. Narciss, 2014 ; Strijbos et al., 2010 ; Veenmann& Spaans, 2005 )
- Metacognition ( e.g. Baker& Lund 1997 ; Verpoorten, et al., 2014 )
- Mindfulness / Awareness ( e.g. Williams, 2013 ; Shapiro& Carlson, 2011 )
- Problem-based learning ( e.g. Hmelo-Silver& Barrows, 2008 ; Barrett& Moore, 2010 )
The following chapters will take a closer look at some of these theories and concepts and their significance for agile learning.
3.1 Learning Goals and Motivation
Agile learning focuses on the individual learner. This is not simply due to an individualistic trend but has sound scientific reason. The basic idea is clear : the closer a learning process is adapted to the individual circumstances of a learner, the better the learning progress and success. A closer look at the considerations behind this basic idea and how to individualise the learning process in the most goal-oriented way will lead the way. The central aspects here are personal dispositions, individual learning goals and the motivation associated with these learning goals.
Every learner is diff erent
Educational psychology has long been concerned with the individual psychological dispositions of learners. Objects of investigation are talent, intelligence, willingness to achieve, persistence or ability to concentrate, to name a few. There is, of course, a reason for this interest : to understand how teaching or learning situations can be designed in such a way that the individual differences of learners can be addressed. The aim of the research is to improve the learning success of each individual and not just the statistical average.
Cronbach ( 1975 ) distinguishes three diff erent ways of adapting teaching situations :
- Adaptation of learning goals to the individual learner ( mastery learning )
- Adaptation through compensatory measures ( e.g. additional learning material for learners with less prior knowledge or inadequate learning strategies )
- Adaptation through adaptive teaching ( the choice of teaching methods depends on the individual pre