Kenneth Bruffee

Thanks, Thomas, for a very thorough presentation on Kenneth Bruffee. I was inspired to go to an early article by Bruffee, from College English, in 1984. The article, Collaborative Learning and the 'Conversation of Mankind', let me to a very interesting statement about writing:

"If thought is internalized public and social talk, then writing of all kinds is internalized public and social talk made public and social again. If thought is internalized conversation, then writing is internalized conversation re-externalized."

I think Bruffee is saying that thought is talk going on inside one's head. I can't completely agree - I have many thoughts that are beyond language, and I would struggle mightily to force them into the restrictive bounds of talk. Surely Bruffee is not saying that thought is entirely socially constructed.

It seems logical and obvious that language is socially constructed, so any study of the language arts would be improved by using social tools, such as peer tutoring and collaborative learning. Working in a high school, I know how much the students and staff learn from each other. I have no doubt that the peer tutoring movement's most prized achievement is the Writing Center. I know many people who have benefited greatly, some as student writers and some as tutors.