On collaboration and peer tutoring with Thomas

Thomas presented to us the composition theorist Kenneth Bruffee, born in 1934, and so part of the rise in theories concerning collaborative learning. He also was one of the first, when traditional Rhetoric was coming back, to promote social constructionism.
Thomas explained that during the 70's and 80's there was growth in the number of nontraditional learners in college. These students were alienated by the LARGE classrooms with to many students. I can confirm this fact as I was in classes of 200 at a time for the first two years of college. I could have fallen over dead and the professor may not have even see me.

The support that was given to these students was similar to the classroom situation. Bruffe and others looked into this and and adapted peer tutoring into the writing center.
Thomas explained with clear transistions, that he was beginning a new topic about Bruffee.

Bruffee believed that students in college and beyond could pool their ideas in a collaborative classroom and in that way construct knowledge amongst them. The teacher may still be facilitator and must uphold this ongoing conversation. Equally important is peer tutoring.

Bruffee also states that though Cooperative learning seems similar to Collaborative work, it is not. Cooperative learning is for younger students and designed to lower competition, while Collaborative learning encourages discussion that brings disagreement and so enhances education. Bruffee sounds like a precursor of Graff who said "teach to the conflicts" to encourage learning. Finally Bruffee argues that "knowledge is collaboration with other people."
He does warn that through Peer tutoring and collaborative learning, students must be trained in how to uphold the ongoing conversation.

While Thomas' presentation had a large amount of print to read from the power point , his hand out had all the important information neatly summarized in four paragraphs.