Review of Mariel’s Extended Analysis on Kenneth Bruffee

I chose to review the podcasts created by Mariel on Kenneth Bruffee. Mariel showed a level of mastery of this mode of composition that I hope to emulate in the future revisions of y own assignment. The sound quality and editing was superb, and the introductory music was a great touch. One thing that I noticed in Amelia’s podcast, that I failed to do in mine also, is to introduce the speaker’s background. I think that introducing yourself as a graduate student and teacher would be a good touch, and may engage the listener and reassure them of your experience in this field.

Kenneth Bruffee’s background was discussed in a great amount of detail in part one. I found the historical context to be very interesting and a good way to introduce how his ideas were different than those of previous generations.  In particular, I found the link between open admissions and his ideas about knowledge to be very enlightening, especially after reading his article “Collaborative Learning and the ‘Conversation of Mankind.’” It is not hard to see where the concept of abnormal discourse originates. One suggestion that I would make is to add a brief discussion about abnormal discourse and how this connects to his idea that knowledge is something that changes.

I also feel that the third section gave a good overview of how Bruffee affected the field as a whole and his impact on composition theory. I think that this section could be expanded to include your personal teaching experience. Part three would benefit greatly from a description of how you see the work of Bruffee in your classroom, and how collaborative learning is perceived and/or viewed in the high school environment today. You could also describe how you see the legacy of Bruffee reflected in our current classroom situation. For example, the assignment of blogs and our review of each other’s work in these blogs is a direct reflection of Bruffee’s ideas.