Hi Duncan

Interesting ideas in your article.

So would a pairing of two (or slightly more) learners be feasible? How would a 'teacher' element arise from this. The simple answer of course is that it wouldn't. The pair would flounder around not knowing what they don't know and not knowing how to elicit knowledge.

This makes me think of problem-based learning (PBL). In PBL a small group of students (between 2 and 7) work together to find out what they don't know about a problem or 'trigger' as it's sometimes called. They have to decide what they need to know and how they're going to go about finding out. There is no 'teacher' element though students do have access to domain experts as one of the resources for information. PBL is about learning about content but more importantly, it's about learning about process. It's a very powerful learning tool and what all (or most!) of us do without thinking as part of life. Would some examples help?

Cheers,

David.