Learning Circles Research Articles

Learning Circles: One form of knowledge production in social action research

This paper explores the use of “learning circles” as one form of knowledge production in social action research. It reports on a project that used learning circles as a setting within which to increase the engagement of people living with low income in developing strategies for the reduction and elimination of poverty in Canada. It presents the process and reflections, analysis and recommendations of 55 project participants and the authors.

A Circle of Learning: The impact of a narrative multilingualism approach on in-service teachers’ literacy pedagogies

This paper explores the impact of a narrative multilingualism approach on in-service primary school teachers who attended the Advanced Certi"cate of Education (ACE) Languages course at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2009. The teachers wrote their own language narratives and were required to implement language narrative work in their classrooms. The paper is a case study of three teachers’ implementation of multilingual narrative pedagogy, and explores the ways in which each teacher translates this pedagogy into their specific contexts. Theoretically, the paper attempts to deepen and extend narrative multilingualism as an approach to language teaching. The notions of uptake and pedagogical translation are explored at various levels, namely, the teachers’ uptake of a multilingual narrative approach and the learners’ uptake. The most striking aspect of the data, across all teachers, is the process and dynamics unleashed in the classroom space. The process of sharing language narratives reconfigured dynamics in the classroom and opened up the classroom space for teachers and learners. The interventions that the pedagogy of narrative multilingualism afforded enabled the validation of linguistic diversity. In a society where xenophobia and linguicism is prevalent, such interventions can play a valuable role in changing attitudes and teaching learners to value difference. Furthermore, previously silenced learners found their voices and participated more in class activities.

The Promotion of “Character” and its Relationship to Retention in Higher Education

With transition to university a strong focus across most higher education institutions, undergraduate teacher education programs have been increasingly scrutinised regarding their (in)ability to adequately prepare students for the challenging social contexts that they will meet. As a result, there has been a burgeoning of approaches which initiate beginning students. In the Education Faculty of a regional Australian university, the FYI (First Year Infusion/For Your Information) Program attempts to build capacity among pre-service students in a supportive learning community. In an intentionally created context, the program provides a Learning Circle approach to student support. Through consciously infusing the value of “character” into the transition program, there is evidence of tangible impacts upon students’ interactions in the learning process and their commitment to course completion. Data are presented that suggest that students’ high quality interactions with peers and academic staff in an informal context are vital to academic success, and that staff also benefit from this program. It would suggest that the development of effective partnerships between all stakeholders is paramount in helping to build capacity.

Rejoining the Learning Circle: When Inservice Providers Conduct Research

Rejoining the Learning Circle: When Inservice Providers Conduct Research

University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Medicine

University of Missouri—Kansas City School of Medicine

Impact of a learning circle intervention across academic and service contexts on developing a learning culture

Partnerships between university schools of nursing and health services lead to successful learning experiences for students and staff. A purposive sample of academics and students from a university school of nursing and clinicians from three health institutions involved in clinical learning (n=73) actively participated in a learning circles intervention conducted over 5 months in south east Queensland. Learning circle discussions resulted in enhanced communication and shared understanding regarding: (1) staff attitudes towards students, expectations and student assessment; (2) strategies enhancing preparation of students, mechanisms for greater support of and recognition of clinicians; (3) challenges faced by staff in the complex processes of leadership in clinical nursing education; (4) construction of learning, ideas for improving communication, networking and sharing; and (5) questioning routine practices that may not enhance student learning. Pre-post surveys of hospital staff (n=310) revealed significant differences across three sub-scales of 'accomplishment' (t=-3.98, p<.001), 'recognition' (t=-2.22, p<.027) and 'influence' (t=-11.82, p<.001) but not 'affiliation'. Learning circles can positively enhance organisational learning culture. The intervention enabled participants to recognise mutual goals. Further investigation around staff perception of their influence on their workplace is required.

Federally sponsored multidisciplinary research centers: Learning, evaluation, and vicious circles

Despite the increasing investment in multi-year federally funded science and technology centers in universities, there are few studies of how these centers engage in learning and change based on information submitted from various agents in the oversight and evaluation process. One challenge is how to manage and respond to this evaluative information, especially when it is conflicting. Although the center can learn and adapt in response to this information, it can also become subject to a vicious circle of continuous restructuring and production of documentation to address various and potentially inconsistent recommendations. In this paper we illustrate the effects of such a dynamic based on our experiences as external evaluators of the $25 million NSF-funded Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center. The case study presents an analysis of annual reports and strategic planning documents along with other sources of evidence to illustrate the evolution of center organizational approaches in response to evaluations by external review panels, center evaluators, program managers, and other external stakeholders. We conclude with suggestions for how evaluators may help centers ease the cost of learning and reduce the likelihood of a vicious circle.

Finding the Achilles' heel in healthcare

Finding the Achilles' heel in healthcare

Teaching and learning apheresis medicine: The Bermuda Triangle in Education

Apheresis Medicine has evolved markedly due to an explosion of knowledge and technology, whereas the time available for training has shrunk as curricula have become increasingly overloaded. Apheresis teaching has inherited a strong clinical context where real patient problems are used in a hands-on environment. To optimize instruction, those involved in the education of apheresis professionals need to have (1) knowledge of how clinical laboratory medicine education has developed as a field, (2) an understanding of what is known from theory and research about how people learn, and (3) the skills to design teaching/learning activities in ways consistent with literature-based principles of adult education. These developments in education provide a context for curriculum projects currently underway by the American Society for Apheresis. Teachers must determine which competencies are central to the essence of a trained professional. Specific, robust, learning objectives targeted toward the development of higher levels of thinking, professional attitudes, and requisite skills are formulated to guide the learner toward mastering those competencies. Curriculum is developed for each objective, consisting of content and the best teaching/learning methods to help learners attain the objective. Appropriate assessment strategies are identified to determine whether the objective is being achieved. The integration of objectives, curriculum, and assessment creates The Bermuda Triangle of Education (Richter, The Circle of Learning and Bermuda Triangle in Education, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 2004). When educators do not effectively navigate The Bermuda Triangle of Education, learning may disappear into the murky depths of confusion and apathy. When successfully navigated, the result will be a significant learning experience that leads to transformation through education.

Extending the task–artifact framework with organizational learning

AbstractOver the past decade there has been an increased focus on the importance of contextual factors in all IT disciplines. At the same time, scholars have heeded the call for investigating the creation of more effective synergies between science and design. For example, the task–artifact (TA) framework was developed to support better utilization of behavioral, cognitive, and social science in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) design. This framework is based on the general developmental pattern of human activities and technologiesteamed with two analytical tools for design. In this paper, we extend this framework from its original focus on individual and small group HCI to the organizational level utilizing organizational learning theory. This extension will (1) integrate relevant concepts and analysis drawn from the social sciences in order to guide design more effectively; (2) incorporate organizational level analysis, when we study information artifact design and appropriation; and (3) help organizations complete their learning circle. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Philo and Greek Poets

AbstractPhilo's manner of quoting and referring to Greek poets has never been systematically investigated. This article shows how Philo often quotes Homer, but also Hesiod, Solon, Pindaros and Theognis. He knows the poets as well any Greek writer. In most cases, Philo quotes the verses exactly as we have them from other sources, preserving all the dialectic peculiarities. However, he may correct the quotation theologically, make a mistake or drop a line, and sometimes he might have learned a text that differed from ours. He often cleverly gives the words a new sense and makes them speak for his own view, following the manner of the Stoics. Philo's works allow us a glimpse the learned circles of the Alexandrian Jews. Philo had memorized poets in gymnasium. He hardly lost the contact to them after his early years, but allowed them to entertain him and his friends during his lifetime.

The BSW Virtual Learning Circle: A Critical Appraisal and Evaluation

The BSW Virtual Learning Circle: A Critical Appraisal and Evaluation

A case example of art therapy in relation to Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

Theoretical and practical aspects of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) as developed by Marsha Linehan are related to the development of a pragmatic art therapy approach to working with severe distress and disturbance, including ‘borderline personality disorder’, through a case example. The dialectical approach of DBT to acceptance and change, emotional regulation and the development of ‘wise mind’ are found to resonate with art-making processes, both inside and outside the formal art therapeutic space, and the art therapist's interventions become central to a team approach. Innovative art therapy interventions (for example the structured use of ‘homework’) and theory (for example ‘the Learning Circle’) contribute to a therapeutic journey from dangerous and extreme patterns of self harm and in patient admissions to a stabilised and community-based level of support. The approach challenges the helpfulness of a formal psychodynamic psychotherapeutic model of art therapy in all circumstances. It opens up the possibilities of developing art therapy not only as an integrated aspect of a DBT-based approach, but also of developing art-making and therapeutic relationships in terms of a psychosocial education model. Psychotherapy understandings underpin, contain and amplify pragmatic, arts-based interventions which are shown to catalyse profound psychological change.

Research and development work: developing teachers as researchers or just teachers?

This article focuses on the theoretical frame of action research and the teacher as researcher, working through a Norwegian Research Council‐funded project in a school that explored learning strategies for pupils’ subject and social development. Action research is here called research and development (R&D) work as the term envisages that research and development are being conducted at the same time. Additionally, the term reflects the fact that the research is conducted within the framework of activity theory and Engeström’s expansive learning circle in which work is termed R&D. The article describes the possibilities and challenges for both teachers and researchers cooperating in R&D projects. Reflection on observed teaching are presented as a central activity in development work, covering the form and content of reflective dialogues; quotations from teachers are provided to show how the teachers experienced observation and reflection. The article discusses whether teachers become researchers, or whether they only develop in their role as teachers. The close cooperation between teachers and researchers in this work is also presented as a model for further education for teachers in‐service and for the training of teacher students.

Creating a Circle of Learning: Teachers Taking Ownership through Professional Communities

Through the participation in professional learning communities, teachers can reinvigorate their teaching careers. Support systems like the National Writing Project allow teachers to build upon their own strengths, as well as learn from others across all grade levels and disciplines. While more traditional professional development options often consist of one-day workshops, professional learning communities continue to push members to grow as learners and educators, ultimately impacting student learning. These communities can provide a model for teachers to use in their own classrooms, providing tools to unlock student potential, as well as teacher potential.

Teaching Statistics in Integration with Psychology

The aim was to revise a statistics course in order to get the students motivated to learn statistics and to integrate statistics more throughout a psychology course. Further, we wish to make students become more interested in statistics and to help them see the importance of using statistics in psychology research. To achieve this goal, several changes were made in the course. The theoretical framework to motivate teaching method changes was taken from the statistics education literature together with the ideas of student-centered learning and Kolb's learning circle. One of the changes was to give the students research problems in the beginning of the course that were used throughout the course and which they should be able to solve at the end of the course. Other changes were to create a course webpage and to use more computer-based assignments instead of assignments with calculators. The students' test results and their answers on the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics, SATS, (Schau, Stevens, Dauphinee, & Del Vecchio, 1995) together with course evaluations showed that by changing the course structure and the teaching, students performed better, and were more positive towards statistics even though statistics was not their major.

Journalism teaching and experiential learning

TV-journalism can never be thought successfully entirely on a theoretical basis. The students must experience the professions challenges and difficulties by exercising and experiencing the TV-journalistic methods, TV-tools and TVaesthetics in practice in order to achieve skills within TV-journalism. The article discusses how Kolb’s learning circle successfully provides a pedagogic approach in practical journalism learning and teaching. Kolb experiential learning theory says that ideally the learning process represents a learning cycle or spiral where the learner touches four bases in process, that means a cycle of experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting. Kolb describes four different learning styles or learning preferences. This refers to four different ways of experiencing the learning process. Every learner has a preference to learn in different ways andthe learning circle offers the learners to fulfil the learning process no matter what starting point the learner prefers. This approach focuses on journalism training as growing a person from the inside, whereas conventional teaching and training is the transfer of capability into a person from the outside. Keywords: coaching, conventional learning, David A. Kolb, Experience Based Learning Systems, Experiential Learning Theory, International TV-program, journalism studies, learning cycle, learning process, pedagogical approach, TV-journalism. p&gt;

Violence against women in intimate partner relationships: community responsibility, community justice

This essay proposes a community‐control paradigm as a catalyst for a broad‐based discussion of alternative policies to reduce incidents of intimate partner violence. Violence against women in intimate partner relationships is an international problem that involves community members and should be treated as a community responsibility, not as an individualized crime. Since battering is a systematic form of domination and social control of women by men, an integrated society‐wide response focusing on community control, not the criminal justice system, is necessary if there is to be any hope of ending violence against women in the home. Suggestions for community programs include: general educational and awareness campaigns; community protection for victims and their children; neighbourhood support groups; neighbourhood watch groups; learning circles; community conferencing; community sanctioning of batterers, including community‐run residential facilities for batterers as an alternative to jail and prison; batterer intervention programs; and coordinated efforts with the police to deal with severe or persistent cases of intimate partner violence.

Squaring the Learning Circle

Student compositions traditionally are written for the teacher. Yet instructors of professional communication genres have discovered that students' motivation may be enhanced when they write assignments for audiences of peers within the classroom or professionals outside the campus. Yet client-based projects require writing students who have never yet written for an external audience to make a leap beyond the classroom. To bridge the gap between writing for classroom peers and writing for professional clients, this article describes a third and intermediate choice of audience, namely, external peers in cross-classroom collaborations that occur via telecommunication. The author places this intermediate-audience strategy within the larger conversation about the impact of audience on student writing outcomes, applies the strategy to professional writing pedagogy, and reports the results of a small pilot study that provide some preliminary support for the strategy.

Community Social Work and the Learning Circle

Outlines an approach for introducing students to Community Social Work by use of clear, engaging stated objectives. Approach is called the Learning Circle and was devised as a tool to enhance student participation and to stimulate networking, dialogue and conversation about social work commitment to community intervention and community‐based services in the light of social work history, international issues, and local statutory and policy contexts.