Interactionalism: Re-Designing Higher Learning for the Large Language Agent Era

Abstract: We introduce Interactionalism as a new set of guiding principles and heuristics for the design and architecture of learning now available due to Generative AI (GenAI) platforms. Specifically, we articulate interactional intelligence as a net new skill set that is increasingly important when core cognitive tasks are automatable and augmentable by GenAI functions. We break down these skills into core sets of meta-cognitive and meta-emotional components and show how working with LLM-based agents can be proactively used to help develop learners. Interactionalism is not advanced as a theory of learning; but as a blueprint for the practice of learning - in coordination with GenAI.