Belief Circles Introduction and guidelines page. 

This Erasmus+ project has been a collaboration between 4 partners organisations across 3 countries. To find out more about each organisation please click below. 

This project is funded by

Disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme. The website reflects the views only of the authors and the commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained within.

Belief Circles are an experimental strategy used to scaffold and structure conversation about personal beliefs among small groups of participants. The recommended maximum number of participants is eight although it is possible to play this game with smaller or larger groups. Circles have no top or bottom, no corners or beginning and no end. Everyone is equal in a circle. In classrooms this strategy is designed to make space for people to speak personally from within their own commitment stance. Participants speak about their religious beliefs or worldview, reflecting on their own lived experience and their own ideas, values and commitment as it relates to a discussion topic. The game has modest expectations. It simply creates a space and a place for listening to people speaking personally about their worldview without being offensive or defensive. It aims to foster learners’ appreciation of the range and complexity of people’s personal beliefs, curiosity in the variety of their values and convictional perspectives and respect and acceptance for people’s different beliefs, values and commitments. It can be difficult to talk about what is most important to us. The Belief Circles Booklet Version 3.1 The Enquiring Classroom project is funded by Erasmus+ belief game is a scaffolding device for learners’ expressions of personal values, worldviews and belief identities in the classroom. It normalises and fosters confidence in reflecting and talking about felt and lived beliefs. Through inviting learners to voice what matters to them and encouraging turn-taking and active listening it also connects learners to the voices of others. Just taking time to really listen and speaking is a powerful activity. The Belief Circles activity is supported by materials on Padlet and TEC ODL sites where learners listen to a wider community of people who also speak about what matters to them e.g. Atlas of European Values, Soul Pancake, Said Mentak interview etc. 

Belief Circles

We'd love to hear your feedback and comments on project outputs. If you have any queries or questions please do not hesitate to contact us.  

We'd love to hear your feedback and comments on project outputs. If you have any queries or questions please do not hesitate to contact us.  

Our booklet on Belief Circles has lots more examples of belief circle topics and full details of the game rules.