This post of mine considers connections between our readings in weeks 2 and 3, as well as an exploration of the ways the creation of the Internet has affected the literacy of the average citizen.
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After completing the readings for week 3 — Carino, Brooks, and Shanoon & Burns — and taking notes during our class discussion, I was really interested by the relationship between directive and non-directive approaches and how these connect to some of the content in the Bruffee reading, Peer Tutoring and the Conversation of Mankind.
Let me quickly summarize Bruffee’s essay: it’s very focused on viewing tutoring in a contextual lens, the context being the power structures inherent in the learning process and the nature of knowledge itself. Much of the essay details writing as essentially an “externalized form of internal conversation,” wherein our brains formulate ideas in terms of hypothetical conversations and then interpret those back onto the page as writing. The essay also posits that classic views of knowledge are incorrect, and that, instead, knowledge is essentially a social construct, and it shifts as the whims and focuses of a given culture shift. Knowledge is expressed by “knowledgeable peers” in the context of a given field most often by that field’s “normal discourse:”
“A community of knowledgeable peers is a group of people who accept … the same paradigms and the same code of values and assumptions… the product of normal discourse is ‘the sort of statement that can be agreed to be true by all participants… [that] count as rational.”
The Shanoon & Burns text complicates the non-directive tutoring model with an anecdote about the author who, as a graduate student, mades great gains in understanding the “normal discourse” of her field only after heavily directive editing-based feedback from an advisor/director, and its relation to the Bruffee text reminds me of the importance of directive tutoring methods. If a student has not read a plethora of academic texts, for example, they are probably unaware of what an “abstract” is, or how formalized the language must be, or how to cite correctly; in this instance, the “normal discourse” cannot be produced simply by allowing a student to figure it out for themselves!
Another aspect of the Bruffee text that really interests me is its attempt to reorient the audience’s understanding of knowledge as being a social conversation, and as being socially constructed, in light of our social environment having changed infinitely since the period in which Peer Tutoring and the Conversation of Mankind was first written. In 2016, our avenues for interaction and discussion with others are infinitely larger given the indescribable impact the Internet has had on society’s ability to communicate. It’s such a disruptive change, in fact, that this major paradigm shift makes me question the Oakeshott quote from Bruffee’s article, where Oakeshott argues that we are the inheritors not “of an accumulating body of information” but of “a conversation…made more articulate in the course of centuries.” With the Internet, we are now inheritors of a massive accumulation of fact-checked information (think Wikipedia) as well as consumers of increasingly foggy half-truths (misinformation, trolling, clickbait, Native Advertising), all within the context of an ever-growing conversation (the Internet itself).
I would also argue that the Internet’s presence in the fabric of reality has instituted an outlet for every citizen’s participation, and that that institutionalized participation in new forms of dialogue (be it debates on social media platforms or activity in forums, two give two examples) has in turn given rise to citizens who are increasingly articulate with different “normal discourses.” Tutors can use these new forms of conversation to enhance their tutee’s knowledge base: “have you heard of JSTOR?” “Can I point you to this incredible website that helps explore the nuances of formatting?” “Can I show you how to fact-check using the Internet?” “Would you like to know a little bit more about Google Docs, a free Office suite accessible from any device?”
Writing Centers, Writing Theory, and English 480 