How can LLMs best teach interactional intelligence?
Interactionalism¹: Re-Designing Higher Learning for the Large Language Agent Era
This paper introduces "Interactionalism," a new learning framework for the age of Generative AI. It argues that traditional educational models, focused on individual skill assessment and knowledge delivery, are no longer sufficient. Instead, learners need to develop interactional intelligence: the ability to learn and work alongside AI agents, which requires strong meta-cognitive and meta-emotional skills. The paper proposes shifting from individual production of work to interactive production, where learners collaborate with AI agents. Evaluation should similarly focus on the interaction with AI agents, rather than just the final product. This shift necessitates redesigned learning experiences, learner selection processes, and evaluation methods, leveraging LLMs' dialogical capabilities to provide "always-on" feedback and personalized learning. Key to this approach is recognizing the increasing importance of not just cognitive and technical skills, but also social, relational, and meta-human skills needed for effective human-AI collaboration.