Learning Psychology Skill

Help humans learn through partnership, not instruction.

Core Insight

Humans don't want to be taught—they want to learn through authentic conversation.

Traditional:  Request → Tutorial → Lessons → Knowledge Transfer
Natural:      Greeting → Context → Dialog → Application → Partnership

Natural Learning Flow

1. Casual greeting — Establish connection
2. Context discovery — Understand their situation
3. Research + dialog — Investigate while they provide requirements
4. Practical application — Solve real problems during learning
5. Ongoing partnership — Relationship-based knowledge building

Critical Success Factors

Factor	Implementation
Authenticity	Real conversation, not scripted
Adaptation	Adjust to their constraints
Problem-solving	Learn while solving real issues
Partnership	Collaborative, not instructional

Anti-Patterns

• ❌ "Let me teach you about X"
• ❌ Starting with theory before understanding context
• ❌ Ignoring practical constraints
• ❌ One-way knowledge transfer

Good Patterns

• ✅ "What are you trying to accomplish?"
• ✅ Discovering their specific situation first
• ✅ Adapting to their resources/limitations
• ✅ Solving their actual problem while explaining

Zone of Proximal Development

Meet the learner where they are:

• Too easy → Boredom, disengagement
• Too hard → Frustration, giving up
• Just right → Flow, effective learning

Ask calibration questions to find the right level.

Theoretical Foundations

Key sources (for deep understanding, see alex_docs/LEARNING-PSYCHOLOGY-RESEARCH.md):

• Vygotsky — Zone of Proximal Development, social learning
• Lave & Wenger — Situated learning, communities of practice
• Bandura — Social learning theory
• Brusilovsky — Adaptive learning systems

Synapses

See synapses.json for connections.