Thank you so much for sharing that, Eiwor. Have you any more formal
material about study circles? This has been of special interest to me -
as it does seem a way to help open space in communities - and it does
seem to be happening all the time though not necessarily always with the
benefit of others success and experience as you are sharing.
Linda Rising and Mary Lynn Manns wrote a book of design patterns for
introducing new ideas called "Fearless Change". They called out a
pattern that seems similar to your Study Circle, but they call it "Study
Group". The short description of study group is "Form a small group of
colleagues who are interested in exploring or continuing to learn about
a topic."
Their argument of the value of the Study Group/Study Circle is that
people don't learn well merely from hearing lectures and enabling a
small group (for them it is no more than 8) helps the people be truly
impacted by the work. They cited a study where two groups were
introduced to a new approach, one with a lecture and the other with a
discussion and group decision making process. There was little or no
change in the first group, but the second group had a 60-100% adoption
rate of the new approach.
Linda Rising wrote a paper of success with study groups published in
Bell Labs Technical Journal which can be downloaded at
http://web.lindarising.info/uploads/studygroups.pdf.
Joshua Kerievsky (also from the design patterns community) wrote a paper
about patterns for successful study groups that is quite interesting:
http://www.inquisitivechap.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/khdraft.pdf
This is a topic dear to my heart - and I'd love to receive any
additional research or experience reports from your own perspective
doing this work in Sweden for the general community, and not just
organizations.
Thank you!
Harold
On 10/1/13 5:50 AM, Eiwor Backelund wrote:
Some time ago I promised to write something about study circles. Here
is a really short version of what it is and how to do one: I know I
also wrote something about it a few years ago which I believe happened
to be gathered into the OST non-guide. I have worked a lot with the
Swedish study organizations. We have 11 national study organizations
(or they might be 12 right now), that are funded by the government to
support people to learn in study circles and also to experience
culture, so everyone irrespective of background, financial status or
where they live could enjoy music, theatre, art etc. They have a
special focus on people with disabilities and immigrants.
Study circles -- the Swedish version
When a study circle is created it is always based on people´s n need
or wish to learn more. The main focus for the study circle is the
search for increased knowledge about a certain area or topic.
The basics of the studycircle is that it is free to join or leave,
that there are no such things as tests or examination and that there
is time for reflection between the meetings. The usual here in Sweden
is to meet once a week for 5-8 times, 2-3 hours each time. The group
size is important so the discussion is easy to participate in. The
number of participants could be as little as 3 people but no more than
12. 6-8 participants is a recommended number for getting enough energy
in the group and still making it easy for everyone to talk and listen.
At the start of the study circle, the participants create their own
study plan together, based on what each of them want to learn. They
decide what material they want to use, where they will search for more
information, when and where they will meet and who takes care of the
coffee and snacks each time. The last thing is not least important J.
The coffee break makes everyone a butterfly for a while and allows the
sharing of other things, which also contribute to the learning.
The leader of the studycircle is not a teacher, but one of the group
that has a somewhat different role. He or she facilitates the
discussions and keeps the group together. The leader has sometimes,
but not always, more knowledge about the topic than the participants.
The leader should see to that everyone has the opportunity to talk and
is listened to and that the group follows the study plan or agree on
changes when necessary. The task to care for the room, coffee etc can
be shared among participants.
I think the study circle could be seen as one of the sessions in an
OST, but with some reflection time in between the discussions. The
leader is a combination of the topic leader and the facilitator.
Good luck
Eiwor
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