There are a large number of possible angles on your question, but there are a number of possible starting places and search terms that might be useful to you. First of all some search terms:

- "action learning" would be a very close fit for the kind of group process you seem to be wishing to research. Although AL is generally about work-based learning rather than educational settings, the process and principles are actually transferable. More generally I can recommend Joe Raelin's book 'Work Based Learning' as a very good overview of a number of adult learning processes that could be thoughtfully transferred  to formal educational settings.

- an emerging term is "heutagogy", which is a tag specifically given by a small number of researchers to self directed learning, although I read their focus as being largely on the individual rather than the group.

Now to some particular starting places. I come from a management background, so the  places I'd start from are in that field - but will also link you in to theory more broadly. A really good, practically oriented pedagogic (/andragogic) source is the Journal of Management Education. I've included a link to a relevant article from the journal, as an example, below.

For a critically oriented take on the theories you are interested in, I'd also recommend you take a look at the journal Management Learning. Again, I have linked to a relevant article as an example below.

Good luck with your research - I hope that you will post about it here on ResearchGate!

http://jme.sagepub.com/content/30/5/670.abstract

http://mlq.sagepub.com/content/40/1/31.abstract

I think that a critical model od work with adult students of M. Malewski is good for you. I've described this model in the one of my article (Institutions of higher education and the idea of lifelong learning). This model shown that teacher is not necessary and education process is focused on student . Here is link to this article:

https://www.academia.edu/9129689/Institutions_of_higher_education_and_the_idea_of_lifelong_learning_Journal_of_Education_Culture_and_Society_nr_1_Wroc%C5%82aw_2011

https://www.academia.edu/9129689/Institutions_of_higher_education_and_the_idea_of_lifelong_learning_Journal_of_Education_Culture_and_Society_nr_1_Wroc%C5%82aw_2011

Wonderful.. thank  you Aleksandra for the insight and article link on LLL.

Thank you Paul for your suggestion on "heutagogy."  Excellent.  And nice to see another from the Island here.

Thanks you Hayden for the google scholar suggestion.

Excellent feedback already given.  Knowles (1975) oft cited definition of self-directed learning includes the phrase "with or without the help of others" (p.18). However, that collaboration is usually seen as  a guiding teacher rather than a collection of peers. Bulick (2009) discusses interactivity in SDL which he defines as “engagement or dialogue with learning resources (human or text based) that allows for an active role on the part of the learner in constructing knowledge and participating in the evaluation of learning outcomes” (p. 52). Beyond that, I've found little in the SDL literature addressing collaboration, at least in the adult learning realm.

A couple other areas for searching might be "peer" or "horizontal" collaboration. Additionally, many universities design their programs around cohorts moving through the program together - thus encouraging collaboration. This may be another area for further research.  You may want to look at the International Journal of Self Directed Learning at sdlglobal.com, if you haven't already.

Bulik, R. J. (2009). Reconsidering the metaphor for teaching in the age of the self-directed learner. In M. G. Derrick & M. K. Ponton (Eds.), Emerging directions in self-directed learning (pp. 51–64). Chicago, IL: Discovery Association.

Knowles, M. S. (1975). Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. Chicago, IL: Follett.

Good luck!

sdlglobal.com

You may find it useful to have a look at one of the recent research we have finished at OISE, University of Toronto titled: Antipoverty Community Organizing and Learning (APCOL): A participatory action study co-led by university and community based researchers. 

www.apcol.ca

• Dear Cecilia, excellent!  thanks for this insight and I am fascinated by your study.  Prior to my current PASS I was studying Affective Leadership Development, focusing in on trait and behavior theory.  But my institution thought I was "wacko" to use that scientific descriptor.  Prior to that was researching the effects of passion upon learning.  To me that was the most fascinating BUT one I don't think the classic educator even wants to know as I think life long educator pursuits are often due to the lack of passion. (oh.. and i recently moved from Maryland to Oxford).

If you are just starting out, I found this to be a useful beginning point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andragogy as it enumerates the essential differences of adult learning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andragogy

Hey Jack, I just remembered another resource you may want to check out. Grow (1991) proposed a Staged Self-Directed Learning model and how to teach to the different stages. The 4th and highest stage is "Learners of High Self-Direction" (p. 134) and in this stage, the "teacher" delegates, mentors, inspires, etc, but essentially just sits in the background and monitors progress. Grow comes from a humanistic & constructivist perspective. You might enjoy the article.

Grow, G. O. (1991). Teaching learners to be self-directed. Adult Education Quarterly, 41(3), 125–149. doi: 10.1177/0001848191041003001.

Good luck! Cecilia

Brilliant!  Thank you Cecilia and Martina. I will give you dubious credit for these finds.  What are you both researching. My concentration on andragogy is the develipment of professional military officers.  Those that are assigned to a seminar type learning environment without an instructor or even a facilitator of any type.  The individuals in the seminar become members simply by asking to join.  Then they together are approved to work through a trove of information with the on paper intent to develpop their leadership traits/abilities. 

I refer to adult cooperative learning in reference to Cooperative Learning (Johnson, Johnson and Smith, 1991) and based on principles borrowed from Study Circles. Initial research I led on learner self-direction in Study Circles, some of which were organized in an academic setting (for an overview in English cf. Kaplan, 2010), compared strategies learners used to regulate their learning in three modalities of presence of a reference person to the field of study (RPFS), i.e. instructor, facilitator… One of the modalities was the absence of a RPFS. I'm adding a link here where you can download the 2010 paper and others. In a recent paper (Kaplan, 2015) I developed these concepts in relation to learning with social media. Feel free to contact me for further details.


References

Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Smith, K. A. (1991). Cooperative Learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports, 20(4), 157.

Kaplan, J. (2010). From Self-Direction to Co-Direction in Adult Cooperative Learning. Proceedings from 29th National Conference of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) held at Concordia University, May 31 – June 2, 2010., Montreal, Quebec.

Kaplan, J. (2015). Applying Adult Cooperative Learning Underpinning Principles to Learning with Social Media -- An Overview and Implications for Research. Proceedings from 4th International Workshop on Learning Technology for Education in Cloud (LTEC 2015).

http://kaplan-consultants.org/publications

 Wow. most wonderful Dr John!  Outstanding perspective and resources from yourself, no less.  

Thanks for the offer to be in contact, I will make that effort!

Jack

Just adding a link to a new resource that might be useful for those with a general interest in adult learning: Dachner and Polin have a very accessible review piece that considers 'emerging' adult learners. What they mean is adults of conventional college age, who are in a transitional stage towards becoming independent learners. Their paper is titled "A Systematic Approach to Educating the Emerging Adult Learner in Undergraduate Management Courses", although I think the insights could apply to some other subjects quite easily too. I've included a link to the publication.

http://jme.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/28/1052562915613589.abstract

Slovenian experience of study circles certainly gives some insight (built on Knowles and Swedish practice; more in LIT, e.g. Gougoulakis, Bogataj, 2007). From the latest literature I would also reccomend publication, raised on the basis of analyse of cross border study circles which are certainly a case of good practice for the last two decades in Slovenia (LIT Bogataj, Gobbo, 2015, see  http://www.edizioniets.com/scheda.asp?n=9788846742834&from=collana )

Some attention should also be given to experience of Commons, which I focus to in the last period. They have not yet been studied from the perspective of AE but prove to be interesting long-term experience of learning.

Literature:

GOUGOULAKIS, Petros, BOGATAJ, Nevenka. Study circles in Sweden and Slovenia - learning for civic participation. In: ADAM, Frane (ur.). Social capital and governance : old and new members of the EU in comparison, (Gesellschaftliche transformationen, Bd. 11). Berlin: LIT, cop. 2007, str. 203-235. [COBISS.SI-ID 1319270] 

BOGATAJ, Nevenka, DEL GOBBO, Giovanna, SLANISCA, Elena. Study circle for local development : lifelong oriented models and operators competences in the cross border area Italy- Slovenia = Circoli di Studio per lo sviluppo locale : modelli lifelong oriented e competenze delloperatore in area transfrontaliera Italia-Slovenia. Formazione & insegnamento, ISSN 2279-7505, 2012, anno 10, nu. 2, str. 255-268. http://www.pensamultimedia.it/pensa/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=82&lang=it

BOGATAJ, Nevenka. Slovenian practice as a contribution to the community learning conceptualisation. In: JELENC-KRAŠOVEC, Sabina (ur.), ŠTEFANC, Damijan (ur.). Perspectives on community practises : living and learning in community : conference proceedings, ESREA 2015. 1st digital ed. Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete: = University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2015, str. 33-43.