The Agile Education Manifesto, in plain answers
Short, direct answers to the questions people ask most about the manifesto, its values and its principles.
What is the Agile Education Manifesto?
The Agile Education Manifesto (also called the Manifesto for Agile Education) is a short declaration, first written in 2017, that brings the values of the Agile Manifesto into learning. It states four values and six principles for students, teachers, professors, parents and institutions. Its preamble reads: “We are uncovering better ways of discovering learning for students, teachers, professors, and others, by doing it and helping others do it.”
What are the four values of the Agile Education Manifesto?
The four values are: Adaptive learning approaches over rigid traditional approaches; Agile learning culture over comprehensive content; Healthy collaboration over unhealthy competition; Feedforward over feedback. That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
What are the six principles of Agile Education?
1. Bringing an Agile mindset into learning at an early stage of development, to create an adaptive mindset for effective collaborative learning. 2. Nurturing thought leaders of tomorrow, for treasuring a better world. 3. Creating an environment of empiricism in learning which is not forced. 4. Helping each and every learner understand and respect their individual learning journey and the impact it creates. 5. Continuous attention to finding or creating more meaningful learning outcomes for the future. 6. The highest priority is to move towards effective learning outcomes continuously.
How are the principles related to the values?
The values say what matters most. The principles are the rules, directions and guidelines that respect that value system in everyday practice. A value without a principle is only a wish; a principle without a value has no purpose. So every principle exists to protect the four values, and any practice that breaks a principle has also stepped away from the values.
How is the Agile Education Manifesto related to the Agile Manifesto (agilemanifesto.org)?
It is a respectful homage to the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, written in 2001 at Snowbird, Utah, and published at agilemanifesto.org. It keeps the same form: a preamble, four values written as “X over Y”, the closing line “while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more”, and principles that put the values into practice. It is an independent manifesto for education and is not affiliated with the authors of the 2001 manifesto.
Who wrote the Agile Education Manifesto?
Satyavrat Nirala spearheaded and designed the Agile Education Manifesto at The Agile Coaches Retreat 2017 in Goa, India, and is its chief author. The primary flag bearers are Preety Chetry, who was part of it at the retreat in Goa, and Naveen Babu Garikapati, who helped improve the values and principles. Early signatories include Willy Wijnands, Sumara Dilpazir, Ricardo Vercesi, Tauseef Baig. The manifesto is stewarded by Mindclick Consulting and SimpliLEAD Consulting.
Where and when was the Agile Education Manifesto created?
It was created in 2017 at The Agile Coaches Retreat 2017 in Goa, India, where Satyavrat Nirala spearheaded and designed it, with Preety Chetry as primary flag bearer. A year later, in 2018, it was first used with a full classroom cohort.
What does “feedforward over feedback” mean in education?
Feedback looks back at what went wrong. Feedforward looks ahead at what the learner can do next. In an agile classroom a mistake earns a hint or a next step rather than a red cross, so learners stay curious and keep moving forward.
What is agile in education?
Agile in education means learning in short, adaptive cycles, with learners collaborating, making their thinking visible and improving continuously, instead of following a rigid, one-size-fits-all syllabus. The Agile Education Manifesto describes the values and principles behind that approach.
When was the Agile Education Manifesto first used in a classroom?
In 2018, a year after it was written, the manifesto was put to work with a full cohort of learners: rooms arranged into working groups, sticky-note boards instead of answer sheets, and a closing wall of learnings instead of a test. The photographs are published as early-adoption evidence.
What is Svadhyaya?
Svadhyaya (Sanskrit for self-study) is a live learning space for children aged 6 to 14, built on the values of the Agile Education Manifesto: no scores, streaks or leaderboards, free hints instead of red crosses, and a timer that always ends.
Can I copy or share the Agile Education Manifesto?
Yes. The authors and primary flag bearers give consent to freely copy the values and principles in any form, but only in their entirety, together with the copyright notice.
How can I sign the Agile Education Manifesto?
Go to the “Sign the manifesto” page, enter your name, email and country, and your name will appear on the public list of signatories. Teachers, parents, students and institutions can also join the mission to get involved.