John Trimbur

Consensus and Difference in Collaborative Learning.

Kenneth A. Bruffee, Harvey S. Wiener, and others have argued that collaborative learning may be distinguished from other forms of group work on the grounds that it organizes students not just to work together on common projects but more important to engage in a process of intellectual negotiation and collective decision-making. The aim of collaborative learning, its advocates hold, is to reach consensus through an expanding conversation. This conversation takes place at a number of levels-first in small discussion groups, next among the groups in a class, then between the class and the teacher, and finally among the class, the teacher, and the wider community of knowledge. In Bruffees social constructionist pedagogy, the language used to reach consensus acquires greater authority as it acquires greater social weight: the knowledge students put into words counts for more as they test it out, revising and relocating it by taking into account what their peers, the teacher, and voices outside the classroom have to

English Only and U.S. College Composition.

In this article, we identify in the formation of U.S. college composition courses a tacit policy of English monolingualism based on a chain of reifications of languages and social identity. We show this policy continuing in assumptions underlying arguments for and against English Only legislation and basic writers. And we call for an internationalist perspective on written English in relation to other languages and the dynamics of globalization.

Composition and the Circulation of Writing.

Composition has neglected the circulation of writing by figuring classroom life as a middle-class family drama. Cultural studies approaches to teaching writing have sought, with mixed success, to transcend this domestic space. I draw on Marxs Grundrisse for a conceptual model of how circulation materializes contradictory social relations and how the contradictions between exchange value and use value might be taken up in writing classrooms to expand public forums and popular participation in civic life.

Mastery, Insight, and the Teaching of Chemistry.

The learning of chemistry is described as a process analogous to the process of making chemical discoveries. Historical examples are given to show how chemists have used their insight to break out of a conceptual loop in order to advance the science. Having the insight to make the intuitive leap necessary to break a conceptual loop is as important as having the mastery of the pertinent facts. As in making chemical discoveries, learning elementary chemistry requires developing insight as well as acquiring mastery of the facts. However, current general chemistry teaching tends to teach facts first and insight later. Suggestions for improving this situation so that insight and facts are learned together are given. Finally, the nature of insight is probed more deeply and presented as a two-step process where the first step is an evaluation of the perceptions about science which are held. Once the student, teacher, or researcher has a clear evaluation of the validity of the perceptions that he or she holds, further significant progress toward understanding or scientific discovery is possible.

Writing in Chemistry: Keys to Student Underlife.

The writing across the curriculum movement began in American col leges and universities in the mid 1970s as an effort by the faculty to spread the responsibility for improving student writing abilities beyond freshman Eng lish. Now there are over four hundred writing across the curriculum programs, many of which require students to take writing-intensive courses outside the English department and beyond the fresh man year. The staying power of these pro grams may be explained by the fact that writing across the curriculum is as much about improving teaching as it is about re quiring more student writing. What seems to keep faculty members interested and committed to these programs are the strat egies they offer to improve teaching by using writing in new ways in the class room.

The Domestication of the Savage Mind

List of tables and figures Preface 1. Evolution and communication 2. Intellectuals in pre-literate societies? 3. Literacy, criticism and the growth of knowledge 4. Literacy and classification: on turning the tables 5. Whats in a list? 6. Following a formula 7. The recipe, the prescription and the experiment 8. The Grand Dichotomy reconsidered Notes to the text References List of abbreviations Index.