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Collaboration and play in the writing classroom.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This essay presents theory and field investigation that supports the argument for more collaborative learning in writing instruction. The authors claim that although collaborative learning occurs frequently in the university system, chances for students, teachers, and writing tutors to engage in meaningful collaborative activities in classrooms are much rarer and need to be implemented more often. The authors offer a literature review and on-site case studies that situate in-class writing tutoring as an option for teachers interested in exploring in-class collaboration resources and activities.

Introduction

Collaborative learning is an important aspect of education that has warranted research and study in multiple fields. In composition studies, for example, practitioners over the past two decades have scrutinized the educational value of collaborative learning (Bruffee; Lunsford; Trimbur; Gere), and the connection between writing centers and the university at large (Barnett and Blumner; Bruffee; Pemberton and Kinkead; Spigelman and Grobman, Eodice). More broadly, in Interdisciplinary Courses and Team Teaching, James Davis reports on several case studies he conducted across the country on interdisciplinary team-teaching programs. While Davis relays many interesting findings involving collaboration, he also notes that, with all the meeting and planning participants were involved in, the mission of imparting the importance of collaborative learning was not getting across to students. When evaluation questionnaires were given to students, collaborative categories were given the lowest scores. In other words, students did not perceive much collaboration going on. Although teachers were collaborating extensively outside the classroom, students were not seeing it (Davis 124-30). A growing movement in composition and rhetoric, and writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC), however, illustrates ways students, teachers, and tutors can collaborate on a day-to-day basis in the classroom in full view of one another (Spigelman and Grobman; Lawfer; Gere; Corbett; Decker; Soliday; Nicolas; Spigelman; Grobman; Grobman and Spigelman). Based on these findings and our own research and practice at the University of Washington (UW), we assert that if students, teachers, and tutors interact frequently in the classroom they can share valuable information such as deploying various rhetorical strategies; balancing directive and non-directive teaching methods; modeling--and questioning--the idea of appropriate academic discourse; and fostering an experimental, playful teaching/learning attitude in writing. [1]

Literature Review

Work in the field of composition and rhetoric points to several theoretical rationales for collaborative learning. Kenneth Bruffee argues that students gain better access to other communities, acculturate better, and learn more from others than from texts (7-9). Bruffee goes even further to conclude that the goal of teachers should be "to initiate students into the skill and partnership of knowledgeable discourses" through conversation and collaborative learning toward consensus (257). [2] John Trimbur, a former student of Bruffee, complicates Bruffee's notion of consensus, however, claiming: "I am less interested in students achieving...

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