Use Study Groups to Support Learning

Use Study Groups to Support Learning
Supporting learning is necessary feature of any agile transition. I always
advocate the creation of one or more study groups.
When my kids were in middle school they learned a technique for reading and
discussing a book called a Literature Circle. They taught me the technique and
I’ve used it to create a study group work agreement that I’d like to share. This
particular work agreement was for a study group that was reading Working
Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers. Feel free to adapt it for your
own study group.
Study Group Work Agreement
All meetings will be scheduled for Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:00. During the
first 30 minutes we will eat lunch together. All members of the Study Group are
expected to be present by 1:00. If we all arrive earlier we may choose to start
the formal part of the meeting prior to 1:00.
To amplify our effectiveness we have chosen to assign the following roles:
Discussion Director, Code Connector, Key Concept Illustrator, and Technical
Vocabulary Enricher. Roles will be rotated each meeting and may be assigned to
more than one participant. We won’t be assigning the typical meeting roles of
Facilitator, Timekeeper, and Scribe—it is everyone’s responsibility to discuss
the material in a respectful and timely manner.
As Discussion Director your responsibility is to develop a list of questions that
your group might want to discuss about the material. Don’t worry about the
small details: your task is to help the group talk over the big ideas in the
material and share their thoughts. You are expected to post your questions to
the study group wiki.
As Code Connector your responsibility is to choose one or more examples of
code from your respective project that relates to the material. The Code
Connector is also responsible for making positive changes to their project code
base using techniques from the material just covered and to present their
results at the next meeting.
As Key Concept Illustrator your responsibility is to choose a few special sections
of the material to talk over. The idea is to help members of the group
remember one or more the important concepts from the material. Once you
have made your choices decide how to share the material. You might draw a
UML diagram on a white board or tell a relevant story from your own work
experience.
Alistair McKinnell alistair.mckinnell@outsofting.com Version 1.0 December 2011
As Technical Vocabulary Enricher your responsibility is to be on the lookout for
especially important technical words that your group needs to understand such
as the Expose Static Method dependency breaking technique. Other examples
from Working Effectively with Legacy Code are Sprout Method and Effect
Sketches.
In addition to these roles you may also want to assign the role of Snack
Supplier. As Snack Supplier your responsibility is to provide your study group
members with a small inexpensive snack. For example, during the study group
pilot the members of the study group were treated to Maple Syrup Pie and Lindt
chocolates.