LEARNING CIRCLE MODEL: Introduction * History * Defining Dimensions * Norms * Phase Structure * References * Next up: Designing the Learning Circles
Norms that Guide Learning Circle Interaction
Trust
Respect
Open and Flexible Approach to Thinking
Individual Responsibility
Group Reciprocity
Norms are implicit rules that develop among groups of people which guide behavior. In setting up learning circles, the facilitator needs to think about ways to develop these norms. Talking about norms is one of making them explicit but one of the most effective ways of setting norms is through modeling them. Where circumstances allow, the first meeting of the circle should be in person. It is much easier to develop these practices and habits when there are shared experiences in a face-to-face setting. However, the best use of this time might be to engage in activities that surface some of the issues that result in norm-setting by the group.
Trust
Cultivating trust is essential to any form of communal work, and should be seen as a core resource for online work (Bryke, Schneider, 2002). The importance of this resource is magnified when working in groups that are highly diverse and geographically dispersed. It is not enough to place people from diverse backgrounds into a collaborative setting and hope that they will work well together. Ignoring the need to develop trust, especially with people from different regions and different life experiences can lead to conflict rather than innovative knowledge building. A part of the learning circle process needs to be intentional efforts to help the group create the ties that will make collective work possible. While it is possible to create this trust online, if a group can meet face-to-face at the beginning they will be in a better position to develop and foster the necessary trust. There are opportunities at the opening of the circle to create a sense of openness by sharing stories related to common interests. Either online or in-person telling personal stories is a form of self-disclosure. Friends are people who carry one’s stories and share experiences. Entrusting others with one’s personal stories is the first step to moving circle participants away from the category of strangers and a bit closer to that of trusted colleagues. The particular strategies that are used will depend on the ages of the participants and the purpose of the learning circle, but helping participants to understand the relationship between learning and identity is often a good place to start. Examples of opening activities are presented in opening the circle phase.
Trust at the beginning will be fragile and develops through shared learning experiences. Online synchronous meetings can help foster trust as everyone agrees to be at the same place at the same time. The interactive nature of these exchanges helps participants come to understand the different perspectives offered by the participants. It is important that participants have shared expectations about the form and level of interaction and that they have the necessary tools, access, and knowledge to participate in a predictable pattern. The structured nature of learning circles helps to provide those expectations. With multiple projects each lead by a different person, it is essential to use tools that will help everyone visualize the progress on project work. Trust builds as each person invests time and energy to meet these expectations. The learning circle facilitator needs to be aware of the importance of trust as well as strategies for nurturing it throughout the learning circle experience.
Respect
Since the work of learning circles commonly is facilitated by technology, it is important to understand the online medium has different markers and tools for supporting social exchanges. Not all participants will be equally skilled in using them. In some cases, it is possible that the distance and the lack of visual markers can make it easier to engage people from different backgrounds and abilities, and in other cases, unfamiliarity with the technology tools might lead to outcomes that impede communication. When experimenting with new ideas and new forms of interaction, respect for differences is essential for helping to move past minor problems in communication. Each member expects to be treated with respect for their ideas and valued for their differences. One marker of respect is fairness in the knowledge-building process. People differ in their eagerness to express their ideas and for some, the online experience is more threatening than for others. In asynchronous exchanges, there is no need to take turns as the "floor" is open to everyone simultaneously. However, if a few people are dominating the space, it falls to others to make sure that everyone's voice is hard. This can be done by asking specific people to share their ideas. Also, an email message to one of the quieter participants saying how much the group would value from their perspective is sometimes effective in getting someone to join in this different form of exchange. Asking for and valuing help from different voices is effective. While personal compliments are always great to receive, they can have a dampening effect on knowledge building. They divert attention from the ideas to the people offering them. Building on ideas, or using someone's ideas is an indirect compliment that keeps attention forced on the dialogue. Noticing and valuing someone's contribution in the email as a "backchannel" can provide renewed energy and participation in the group communications. Also, offers of help to quieter members are more effective than questions or complaints about lack of participation. The use of guilt might work in face-to-face settings, but online it causes a reluctant participant to go invisible. It is easy to ignore or delete a negative message.
Open and Flexible Approach to Thinking
Dialogue is central to knowledge building. Knowledge building requires open, inclusive dialogue representative of all voices and experiences of circle members. Each participant brings firsthand experience around issues and problems and can offer different resources, experiences, perspectives, and skillsets. If participants are inflexible in their thinking and give up the possibility of change, then the talk is limited and learning minimal. Learning involves a risk of identity as ideas structure how one sees oneself. The structure of ideas is not easy to change and that structure is what helps a person develop consistency from one context to the next. However, when they become rigid, it becomes difficult to adapt to new circumstances. That makes it difficult to adapt to the rapidly changing dimensions of the world. Learning circles are places where participants are asked to relax their hold on their identity and try on the world from different perspectives. This norm of openness is essential and underlies transformational change.
Individual Responsibility
Individual responsibility and group reciprocity are core values that guide circle work. Each participant is responsible to be a leader in some part of the group process. As a leader, a circle member needs to motivate others to work on his or her project. The leader will need to organize the group response and help monitor the group process. As participants in the projects of others, the circle member needs to be willing to do what they can to make each of the other circle projects a success. This is made more clear in the discussion of the projects which become the central work of the circle. Efforts to help the group understand their interdependency are essential to creating the foundation for an effective learning circle experience.
When an individual fails to meet group expectations, there is a break in the trust that this is a shared and valued activity. The multiple project format can be adjusted to make it fit with the differing needs of circle participants. In planning the projects, it is important that each person is clear about their ability to participate. Each person needs to be clear on what they can and cannot accomplish. Since the projects required some level of commitment, setting this level and then everyone being clear about what is required of them is critical for the success of the circle.
Group Reciprocity
Reciprocity describes the respective relationships that are created when each member of the learning circle is both leader and participant. Learning Circles is a bartering of intellectual resources. In effect, each person trades their willingness to work on projects of others to gain the willingness of the group to work on their project. It is not necessary to have everyone participate in every project however, the circle decides on how many participants, and what level of effort is required by the different projects.
At the circle level, this group reciprocity is the development of social capital (Portes, 1998; Penuel & Riel, 2007). Social capital is the resources that you have available by virtue of the social ties, trust, reciprocity you have developed with others. The social capital in learning circles is dependent on each participant feeling an obligation to help others, as well as a sense of confidence that others will be there to help when needed (Putnam, 1993). Underlying the success of any learning circle interaction lies the relationships between people and the ways in which they evolve and deepen that relationship. The learning circle facilitator might model how to use interactive tools to create a project checklist so that there is a visual representation of group reciprocity. This helps make visible this important norm of learning circle interaction.
Individual Responsibility
Group Reciprocity