---
description: >-
  How can one's self-actualization/transformation lead to resource regeneration,
  no matter where their starting points are?
---

# Learning by Caring

**Learning by Caring** is an educational model I developed as a direct response to the structural distortions of **Allocation Dependence**. While Allocation Dependence pushes individuals to reshape themselves to fit into externally determined criteria, often sacrificing their most unique, irreducible potentials, Learning by Caring flips this logic. It reframes learning not as a performance for redemption, but as a regenerative process rooted in **prosocial action, reciprocity, and intrinsic motivation**.

## 🔁 From Resource Redemption to Resource Regeneration

In conventional systems, learners chase finite, externally-allocated rewards—like exam scores, certifications, or credentials—often suppressing parts of themselves in the process. These could be internal (e.g., purpose, neurodiversity, disability) or external (e.g., rural origin, cultural marginality, frugal living). Over time, this shapes a deficit-oriented identity, oriented around fitting in and surviving rather than growing and contributing.

**Learning by Caring** proposes a different path.

It begins with **what learners genuinely care about**—whether it’s a social issue, a personal experience, or the wellbeing of someone or something in their lives.&#x20;

At its heart is a relational cycle:

1. **Learner as Carer** — growth occurs through the act of caring itself.
2. **Cared & Their Community** — the learner engages real-world people, places, or issues.
3. **Reciprocity** — through mutual benefit and resonance, learners receive feedback and opportunities that nourish further growth.
4. **Caring as Self-Actualization** — the learner's development becomes indistinguishable from their contribution.

<figure><img src="https://478732721-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTbiiVKUrN9bvoIKypqnf%2Fuploads%2FzhmqhZeSGWd61J6mTZwL%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=2cbd956e-7cfe-49a6-b501-9eae5e1e1c81" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Through that care, they begin building:

* **Capacities** through real-world problem-solving
* **Relationships** through collaboration and mutual support
* **Outcomes** that are meaningful both to the learner and their community
* All of these become **Resources** that supports the Learner-Carer's further journey

> “Instead of desperately fitting into the allocation measures to redeem resources, resources naturally flow to them as others reciprocate to their caring endeavors.”

The learner becomes not a passive recipient of knowledge, but an **agent of mutual development**, growing through acts of contribution and co-creation. The learning is recursive and regenerative, because it connects head, heart, and hands—regardless of where the learner starts or what formal qualifications they possess.

## Comparison with _Learning by Reasoning_ and _Learning by Doing_

This model transforms education from **"learning by doing"** or **"learning by reasoning"** into something more holistic and relational. Even when realized, traditional ideals still depend on the allocation of educational resources. By contrast, **Learning by Caring begins with lived care, not institutional access.**

<figure><img src="https://478732721-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTbiiVKUrN9bvoIKypqnf%2Fuploads%2Fnzyt6NpLGtBIWUQ2iBfX%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=662fd9fb-f712-42a0-9679-4e7af375474f" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>



<figure><img src="https://478732721-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTbiiVKUrN9bvoIKypqnf%2Fuploads%2F8AR5GvoTqvGyPtJXTt7A%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=1fea8641-fcbf-4c84-9ebf-fbf1661a316c" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## 🧪 Practice at the Awakening Cooperative Lab

At the Awakening Cooperative Lab, I mentored 16 youth under the age of 18, including 7 from disadvantaged backgrounds. These engagements were not framed as “programs” or “training” but as real-world, caring-centered collaborations in media, research, and social action.

The results speak to the model’s transformative power:

**🎓 Youth Who Later Entered Top Universities:**

* 5 learners gained admission to top-tier universities
* 4 of the 5 came from disadvantaged backgrounds
* 3 bypassed university entrance exams entirely
* 1 earned a Master's degree without completing a Bachelor's
* All became **social impact leaders**, taking roles such as:
  * Student body presidents
  * National and international awardees (e.g., Taiwan Presidential Education Award, Beijing Youth Education Innovation Award)

**💼 Youth Who Did Not Attend University:**

* 8 chose alternative paths to higher education
* All built **stable, passion-driven careers**
* Among them, 3 disadvantaged youth became:
  * An award-winning film crew member
  * An award-winning YouTuber focused on sustainable lifestyles
  * A café co-founder with a 4.8-star Google rating

In each case, the learner’s path was not dictated by allocation metrics but grown through care, contribution, and community-rooted action.

## 🌍 Toward an Ecosystemic Paradigm

Learning by Caring isn’t a curriculum—it’s a different paradigm. A way of knowing, growing, and relating that heals the split between learning and life, between development and contribution.

This model informs other frameworks/projects I’ve developed, including but not limited to:

* [**Education Bypass Surgery**](../../projects#education-bypass-surgery-campaign-2016) (youth-centered development beyond institutional filters)
* [**Care–Passion–Talent Framework**](care-passion-talent-framework) (a compass for life design)
* [**East Asia Dojo for Transdisciplinary Research and Praxis**](../../projects#east-asia-dojo-for-transdisciplinary-research-and-praxis-2025) (a transdisciplinary research and praxis community)

Together, they offer an alternative to performance-based education, opening the door to pluralistic, inclusive, and ecologically attuned learning ecosystems.



## Read more

🎞️[What If the Disadvantaged Are Already the Most Resource Abundant? A Case for Shifting from "Forecast-based" to "Agent-based" Talent Incubation](https://youtu.be/V0JYOMW1bJw?si=-sziuenh2uKF55OF)

🎞️\[in Mandarin] [Does Taiwan Already Have a "World-Class Education System?" Why Don't Most of Us Feel So? – Exploring the Key Shift in Mindset Required for the Next National Curriculum Based on _If There is a Reason to Study_ and the Admissions Disputes](https://youtu.be/T-Tp7ImQSKs?si=KSDVTrjlpD3f8MYE)

📰[Under the Shadows of Popular Systems Change: How a Prestigious University Failed a Disadvantaged Student, or the Case for a Critical Realist Agent-Based Approach](https://medium.com/@illuminatesystemschange/under-the-shadows-of-popular-systems-change-how-a-prestigious-university-failed-a-disadvantaged-09d31aed8c8a)

{% hint style="info" %}
## Formats

🎞️Video

📚Journal article/Book/Book chapter

📝Conference paper/Preprint/Report/Whitepaper

📰Blog/Column/Op-Ed

🗞️Press coverage
{% endhint %}



## See also

* [allocation-dependence](allocation-dependence "mention")
* [reflexive-media](reflexive-media "mention")
* [care-passion-talent-framework](care-passion-talent-framework "mention")
* [education-as-ecosystem-weaving](education-as-ecosystem-weaving "mention")
* [academia-as-distributed-knowledge-ecosystems-for-collective-transformation](academia-as-distributed-knowledge-ecosystems-for-collective-transformation "mention")
* [critical-realist-agent-based-approach](critical-realist-agent-based-approach "mention")
