2. The concept of “Learning Circles"
“Learning Circles" consist of 6-9 teachers that, together with students in their school carry out activities in
cyberspace on a topic of interest to the group.
The concept of "learning circle" involves both school and local community. One can refer to it as a virtual
classroom because once formed the group is working together for a period of 4-5 months based on a curriculum
established in relation to the selected topic. At the end of the activity, the group publishes their work product.
Such materials can be educational materials for other teachers and students who did not participate in the project.
Each session at the start of a new "learning circle" will form a new virtual classroom.
The major advantage of the activity in this type of project is that both students and teachers acquire new
experiences.[1]
It can be said that activities allow members of the local community as well (scientists, artists, etc.) to
participate in projects. Support received from the business environment allows teachers to acquire high
managerial skills.[2]
For primary education it is considered "circle time" the time of day in which students exchange messages with
each other. One purpose of the circle is to develop skills of oral communication in front of the group members.
For secondary and high school students the focus is on written communication and on the development of user
skills for communication technology resources.
“Learning Circles" bring together classes of students from urban and rural areas, located in different
geographical areas. Thus, passionate students of different fields can work together eliminating the subjective
criteria for setting up groups such as gender, age, social environment etc.
Working in "learning circles" brings together the teacher and students to form a team where everyone has to
perform different roles.
The experiences acquired through the learning circles proved to be beneficial to the professor-student
relationships. Thus, the communication between them is more efficient because it is based on trust, the students
appreciated, and the teachers thought the didactic evaluation is less stressful for both sides, checking particularly
the less performing competencies.