One of the important, far-reaching examples of a simple mechanism which is applied to itself is the learning of learning. In its elementary form learning occurs as it were incidentally, as a by-product of action and the perception of its consequences. Only when the learning process is differentiated and becomes functionally independent does it become possible to learn in a concentrated manner, systematically, and over a long period of time. It then becomes worthwhile to divert a part of the effort into the rationalization of the process of learning itself, and to learn to teach and to learn to learn.

DEFINE: Clarifies the concept of 'learning of learning' — a self-applied mechanism where learning becomes its own object.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 249