Overview
The studiecirkel, or study circle, is a peer-led learning format developed in Sweden at the beginning of the twentieth century and now embedded in adult education across Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It offers a useful reference point for VET trainers exploring mentoring approaches in which students take collective responsibility for inquiry into themes such as communication, leadership, and inclusion — themes that resist transmission-style teaching and benefit from sustained, dialogical engagement.
Historical roots
The model is conventionally dated to 1902, when the Swedish educator Oscar Olsson (1877–1950) established the first study circle in Lund, within the temperance movement of the International Order of Good Templars (Bjerkaker, 2006; Larsson, 2001). Olsson framed the circle as collective self-education: small groups of roughly seven to fifteen participants meeting regularly to study a topic of shared interest, without a formal teacher, without grades or examinations, and without entry qualifications (Larsson, 2013). The leader functioned as an organiser rather than an instructor. Olsson’s defining principle — “the emancipation of the working class should be a task for the workers themselves” — anchored the method in the idea that learners are agents of their own formation (Johansson, 1994, in Bjerkaker, 2006).
The pedagogical model
The “study circle grammar” identified by Larsson (2013) in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education rests on four features: voluntary participation, a wide span of topics, no required teacher, and no formal assessment. Deliberation among participants is the core method; practical topics may shift toward a workshop pedagogy. The teacher’s role, when present, is to provide the framing principles and resources — what to consider, not what to conclude. This restraint is itself instructional: by withholding answers, the facilitator signals that the subject matter (often relational or ethical) is a domain of practice to be developed through dialogue, not a body of fixed knowledge to be received.
Relevance and evidence base for VET
Three lines of evidence support the model’s relevance to contemporary VET mentoring on communication, leadership, and inclusion:
- Peer learning in vocational settings has been shown to support self-directed learning, critical thinking, communication, interpersonal skills, and self- and peer-assessment capacities — provided the format is structured and the facilitator orchestrates the activity deliberately (Nash, 2011, citing Roberts, 2008).
- Peer assessment as collaborative learning improves psychological safety, trust in peers as assessors, and conceptions of assessment itself — interpersonal competencies that map directly onto VET trainer development goals (Van Gennip, Segers & Tillema, 2010).
- Collaborative and active learning interventions in vocational classrooms produce measurable gains in both achievement and self-motivation compared with traditional instruction (Ramadhanti et al., 2024).
Comparison with classroom mentoring
Conventional classroom mentoring is typically hierarchical, individual, and outcome-oriented: a teacher guides a student toward a defined competency. The study circle inverts several of these features. It is horizontal (peers among peers), collective (the group is the unit of learning), and process-oriented (the meetings themselves are the curriculum). For competencies that are inherently relational — leadership, inclusion, communication — this inversion is pedagogically coherent: students rehearse the very competencies they are studying.
Practical implications for VET trainers
A study-circle-inspired mentoring cycle in VET might involve six to ten learners meeting on a fixed schedule (weekly or fortnightly) over a defined period, each session anchored by a short text, case, or prompt provided by the trainer. Roles (facilitator, note-taker, time-keeper) rotate. The trainer is available between sessions but does not chair the meetings. Self-assessment is built in through structured reflection at the close of each cycle.
Sources & further reading
- https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61768/chapter-abstract/553575360?redirectedFrom=fulltext
- Bjerkaker, S. (2006). The study circle — a method for learning, a tool for democracy. Paper presented at the FACE Annual Conference, University of Stirling.
- Johansson, I. (1994). För folket, genom folket [For the people, by the people]. Stockholm: ABF.
- Larsson, S. (2001). Study circles as democratic utopia: A Swedish perspective. In A. Bron & M. Schemmann (Eds.), Civil society, citizenship and learning (pp. 102–122). Münster: LIT Verlag.
- Larsson, S. (2013). Study circles. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press.
- Nash, R. (2011). The effectiveness of peer learning in a vocational education setting. Ako Aotearoa, National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.
- Ramadhanti, A., Adha, M. A., & Wibowo, A. (2024). An experimental study on the impact of collaborative and active learning on vocational students’ learning achievement and self-motivation. GIST – Education and Learning Research Journal, 29, 123–142.
- Van Gennip, N. A. E., Segers, M. S. R., & Tillema, H. H. (2010). Peer assessment as a collaborative learning activity: The role of interpersonal variables and conceptions. Learning and Instruction, 20(4), 280–290.