Learning Circles
Learning circles are groups that tend to meet around books consistent with the mission of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Each group has from six to ten participants and is open to the faculty and staff of UNC Asheville, as well as to occasional community members and students.
Bruce typically, but not always, convenes and quasi-facilitates
each group. Groups generally read two chapters each week, although it is
common for one chapter to be read at the first and last gatherings. Most
groups meet five or six times.
Learning circles tend to be characterized by four aspects: (1) they are totally
voluntary; (2) everyone comes to the circle as a learner, not as an authority
or expert; (3) everyone has an opportunity to speak; and (4) there is no
necessity for closure--it is okay to leave the room with “questions in the
air." These aspects are seen as supporting the competence, autonomy
and relationship of each participant, as related in Edward L. Deci, Why We
Do What We Do: Understanding
Self-Motivation (New York: Penguin, 1995), and are sought to be consistent
with the basic practices of dialogue, namely, listening, respecting,
suspending, and voicing, as developed in William Isaacs, Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together: A Pioneering Approach to
Communicating in Business and In Life (New York: Doubleday, 1999).
At the end of the day, the most important thing about a learning circle is that it provides an opportunity to be together with people who are eager to learn in the presence of others. Your presence is requested!
The links below provide information about prospective and past learning circles: