paragogical principles

Paragogy is a name for the theory of peer-to-peer or
peer-based teaching-and-learning-between-equals.

A more informal synonym is "peertagogy".

The theory of paragogy is developed in opposition to
"andragogy". Here are its defining principles as I see
them today.

1. CONTEXT AS A DECENTERED CENTER

A paragogic view suggests that everyone has a mixture of
"dependent", "self-directed", and "other-directed"
behaviours, without saying that any of these is "good" or
"bad". It suggests that a self-concept may be less
important than the concept of "shared context in motion".
This has various consequences, e.g. as to the relative
value placed on social intelligence and so-called "mental
age". It also de-emphasizes personality-based critiques
in favour of a critique of social/dynamical systems.

2. META-LEARNING IS A FONT OF KNOWLEDGE

A paragogic view says that we all have a lot to learn
about learning.

3. PEERS ARE PEOPLE WHO LEARN TOGETHER

A peer isn't necessarily someone who happens to be stuck
in the same ruts you are stuck in. In fact, the paragogic
view says you can learn from practically anyone, and that
people who learn from one another are "peers".

4. LEARNING IS DISTRIBUTED AND NONLINEAR

Learning, whether with a given application in mind,
or for some other reason, can come from many different
sources.  Part of paragogy is learning how to work one's
way around a given social field.

5. REALISE YOUR DREAM AND THEN WAKE UP

Realising a motivation seems at least as important as its
existence in the first place. Merely indicating that a
given motivation is "internal" or "external" is likely not
to be fine-grained enough to be very useful. Paragogy is
the art of realising motivations when possible, then going
on to the next thing.