Online
Learning Circles
The purpose of this guide is to prepare you and your students
for cross-classroom tele-collaboration in "Learning Circles." Learning
Circles promote theme-based project work integrated
with the classroom curriculum. Working with Learning Circle partners from
around the world help students develop important interpersonal
skills. Learning Circles also encourage interactions among teachers
providing a very different model of professional
development.
A Learning Circle is created by a team of 6-8 teachers and
their classes joined in the virtual space of an electronic classroom.
The groups remains together over a 3-4 month period working on projects
drawn from the curriculum of each of the classrooms organized around a
selected theme. At the end of the term the group collects and publishes
its work. Then, just as any class of students does, the Learning Circle
comes to an end. Each session begins with new groupings of classes into
Learning Circles.
The success of the Learning Circle model seems to be tied
to frequent changes of partners so that teachers - as well
as students - are learning from the new experiences. The teachers who
participate
in different Learning Circles begin to create a community --a network
of professional colleagues from around the world. This development
of
community is an important part of the Learning Circle model. The Learning
Circle model evolved out of a research project at the University of
California,
San Diego in the mid eighties. With the support of the The AT&T
Learning Network from 1987-1996, thousands of teachers and their
students were engaged in learning circles around 6 themes and in 4
different languages.
Beginning in the Fall of 1997, this Learning Circle Teacher Guide was
made available online to all organizations. The International Education
And Resource Network (iEARN) provides support
for iEARN Learning Circles.
In Mexico, Círculos
de Aprendizaje (in Spanish) are currently organized by
Carlos Mart�nez from Monterrey, Mexico (originally organized by Jorge
H. Gutiérrez). Learning Circles also connect students from
South Africa, Jamaica, Ghana, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands through
a project
called Global Teenagers.
Another project that uses some aspects of the Learning Circle structure
and guide is the Friends and
Flags Project dedicated to multicultural education, for information
on this project contact Karen
Eini
in Israel. And finally Learning Circles are being used to support action
research projects in the Pepperdine online M. A. Program in Educational
Technology. For more information contact Margaret Riel ([email protected]).
Working within a larger community provides direction and
support to explore creative ways of integrating communications technology
into your classroom. The supporting network provides much more than the
technical links between the classrooms; it provides a rich network of
human resources for learning how to use telecommunications as an instructional
tool.
The purpose of this guide is to establish
common goals, to share ideas and suggestions from other teachers, and
to support you in your teaching and learning. Here are some of the ways
in which working within a larger community, such as iEARN can help make
Learning Circle interaction more successful.
Support For Learning Circles
The Learning Circle Concept
Learning circles, generically described, are small diverse,
democratic groups of people (generally 6-12 ) who meet regularly over
a specified period of time to focus their different perspectives into
a common understanding of an issue or problem. The discussion take place
in an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding. The goal is deeper
understanding by the participants and their efforts are often directed
towards the construction of a final product or recommendation for a course
of action. Online Learning Circles are groups of 6-12 classrooms that
work together as a team using their diversity as a resource to understand
a topic or problem they share.
Brief History of Learning Circles
The use of a circle as both the organizational structure
and descriptive metaphor for a meeting of equals is likely to have been
a part of our history for as long as fire. The learning circle is a mechanism
for organizing and honoring the collective wisdom of the group and is
present in many indigenous cultures. For example, in early native councils
of elders came together to understand problems in a spirit of shared community
in “wisdom circles.”
Learning Circles have served as effective strategy with clear links to
social change. Over time and across countries, civic organizations, neighborhood
communities, trade unions, churches and social justice groups have used
learning circles to empower their members to make choices and take action.
They are currently used in the United States (see
Study Circles) and in other countries (for example Australia)
as a form of adult education. A similar term, "Quality Circle" was used
to characterize the successful practice in corporate settings in which
the hierarchical boundaries between workers and managers are flattened
to encourage participatory management and team leadership. The goal is
to encourage everyone to develop a strong sense of ownership over the
process and products of the group.
Learning Circles can be used with learners of any age. For
example, Educators for Community
Engagement, find that learning circles --with their principles of
equal participation, reciprocity, and honoring of collective wisdom -embody
the democratic principles of effective service-learning partnerships.
They use learning circles, rather than more traditional forms of group
meetings, to structure their annual conferences. Primary teachers use
a form of learning circles when they gather the students at the rug for
"circle time." Among the goals of this activity are helping students to
develop the trust and respect for diversity of experience, and fostering
both listening and speaking skills among peers.
These different forms of learning circles--wisdom circles,
circle time, study circles and quality circles--are all structures for
face-to-face dialogues. In contract, the Learning Circles described
in this guide take pace over a networks in an online or virtual setting.
This specific use of the idea of learning circles refers to an online
structure for linking students and their teachers from different countries
to work together using their diversity as a resource to achieve deeper
understandings.
The spirit of honoring the collective wisdom, and trusting
the process to create deeper understanding -- the heart of learning circles--remains
constant regardless of their context. The cooperative approach to decision-making
and management that is essential in Quality Circles, also describes how
teachers work with each other in online Learning Circles as they design
educational activities to extend students' knowledge and skills.
However, in contrast to these different forms of face-to-face
meetings, the mode of communication is different. It shifts from listening
and talking to reading and writing. The participant changes from a single
person to a collective, a whole class and sometime a whole school. The
outcome of the circle is a written document, a summary or collection of
their collaboration. And the context of school with its complex set of
institutional constraints shape a different phase structure for learning
circles. The purpose of this guide is to share that structure.
Learning Circle Interaction
Learning Circles can bring together classes from large urban
settings and geographically isolated rural areas. Students with a wide
range of educational, physical, and social abilities can interact with
one another without regard to debilitating little attention placed on
educational labels. Teachers open windows in their classrooms, inviting
their peers to look in and see what is taking place. In turn, they are
encouraged to peer into the classrooms of others, learning from both students
and teachers in distant locations.
The interaction between you and the other participants in
your Learning Circle will be something you help to create. No one can
fully predict the direction your interaction will take. It will be a team
effort resulting from the cooperation between teachers and students who
might otherwise never have had the opportunity to interact.
This guide will prepare you for unknown educational opportunities.
As Learning Circle participants, you will continue to chart a new direction
in education. If you are working in Learning Circles with the support
of a larger community such as iEARN, you will be matched with a group
of educational trail blazers like yourself, provided with powerful communication
technology, and offered the wisdom and services of others who ventured
before you. We hope this support will give you the courage to explore
with confidence.
Phases of a Learning Circle
This guide is arranged around the six phases of Learning
Circle Interaction. You can skip the rest of the introduction and move
to any of these phases now.
Phases of a Learning Circle
Introductory Activities
The first phase of Learning Circles involves getting to
know your partners. The introductory activities during the "Opening the
Circle" phase help you get acquainted with the other classrooms in your
Learning Circle.
One of the introductory activities is the Classroom Survey
which asks you and your students to answer questions about yourselves,
your school and your community. Another activity that helps students learn
about one another is the Welcome Pack to be sent via postal mail to each
of your Learning Circle partners. It may include class photos and other
materials that would help them get to know you better. These introductory
activities help the group prepare to work together as a team.
Learning Circle Projects
Once students and teachers are acquainted, the curriculum-based
educational projects become the organizing activity in the Learning Circle.
These projects assure that the educational benefits of telecommunications
will extend beyond the personal exchange that often characterizes computer
networks.
One of the advantages of this model is that the Learning
Circle projects come from you and your Circle partners. Each class, including
your own, will have the opportunity to sponsor a project in your Learning
Circle. Your Circle partners will help you develop your project by contributing
the information or articles you request. Your class is expected to reciprocate
by participating in the projects sponsored by the other classrooms in
your Learning Circle.
This Curriculum Guide describes the goals for the Learning
Circle and sets the group timeline for accomplishing these goals. Project
suggestions and sample work of other teachers and students are provided.
You may design your own Learning Circle project or follow one of the project
listed in this guide.
The Circle Publication
Captivating Learning Circle projects make a lasting impression
on students because time is spent on the important step of reviewing and
evaluating the learning experience. This process occurs in each Learning
Circle through the cooperative production of a Learning Circle publication.
This publication summarizes or collects all the work that was done on
the different projects in your Learning Circle.
Organizing your Learning Circle project into a section for
the Circle publication will help your students review and evaluate the
exchanges they had with students in other locations. The choices they
make about what to include in their project section and how to organize
the information helps them to mentally organize what they learned. The
Circle publication demonstrates the quality of learning that takes place
when students work with their peers in diverse locations.
Exchanging Messages
Some form of electronic mail is used for communicating
in Learning Circles. Using the Internet, messages can be automatically
sent to a central computer. The computer then deposits the messages
into electronic mail boxes or a conference posting where they remain
ready to be read by all members of the Learning Circle.
Sending and reading your Circle mail should be as easy as
possible. The work of a Learning Circle is best facilitated by automated
mail services so that students and teachers are not working online. Once
the program is initiated, the job of exchanging messages is most efficiently
done by the computer. This allows communications to take place at the
convenience of all Learning Circle participants, regardless of their school
schedules or time zones.
In general, you will be sending your messages to everyone
in your Learning Circle. This is done by addressing your mail to the conference
that can be accessed by all of your Learning Circle partners. When an
electronic message is delivered to conference it is stored under the specified
topic and all members of the Learning Circles can read and download it.
The conference structure makes it possible for messages to be retrieved
and stored locally on the classroom computer to be printed and displayed
later by the students.
Learning Circle Themes
Teachers and students are grouped into Learning Circles
by themes. This thematic organization helps teachers who are working in
similar curricular areas to be matched with one another. Theme organized
work allows for cross-curricular partnerships yet recognizes the need
of teachers to work within their established curricular objectives. The
thematic organization creates a framework for the selection of Learning
Circle projects by the participants.
- Places and Perspectives
(History, Geography, Social Science)
- Computer Chronicles
(Journalism, Computer Publishing, English, Creative Writing)
- Global Issues (Government,
Politics, Environmental Studies, Writing)
- Society's Problems (Social
Science, Writing, History, Statistics/math)
- Energy and the Environment
(Science, Social Science)
- Mind Works (Creative
Writing, Literature, Social Science)
Educational Benefits
Classrooms work together on the network for a relatively
short period of time, but the links made when teachers and students share
ideas and feelings often last longer than the Learning Circle. As a consequence
of this collaboration, both students and teachers find their interest
in learning renewed. Teachers have reported many lasting benefits from
working in the Learning Circle environment:
Enhances Student Learning - Students gain
rich insights from the geographic diversity and cross-cultural exchanges.
Encouarges Ownership of Ideas - Each student group
shapes a part of the interaction for the group
Develops Reading/Writing Skills - Students
use written communication skills to exchange ideas with distant peers.
Enhances Teaching Curriculum - Learning
Circle projects provide an exciting and innovative forum for teaching
traditional subjects.
Stimulates Teacher Creativity - Teachers
develop new instructional techniques by sharing project ideas with colleagues
around the world.
Expands Teaching and Learning Horizons
- Learning Circle projects take students beyond the classroom to draw
on family and community resources for information, making them more aware
of their social and physical surroundings.
Integrates Computer and Telecommunications Technology
- Teachers and students learn technical skills as they use telecomputing
to work cooperatively with people in distant locations.
More Specific Educational Benefit
are also listed by theme:
- Places and Perspectives
(History, Geography, Social Science)
- Computer Chronicles
(Journalism, Computer Publishing, English, Creative Writing)
- Global Issues (Government,
Politics, Environmental Studies, Writing)
- Society's Problems (Social
Science, Writing, History, Statistics/math)
- Energy and the Environment
(Science, Social Science)
- Mind Works (Creative
Writing, Literature, Social Science)
Teacher Comments on Learning Circle Interaction
Here are comments from teachers
who have had many years of experience working in Learning Circles.
Written by Margaret
Riel
Copyright © 1997, Revised 2006, Margaret Riel
. All rights reserved.
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