The Place of Strategic Dialogue in Collaborative Learning :: Peer Tutoring Tutor Tutors Essays

The Place of Strategic Dialogue in Collaborative Learning The tutorial interaction in writing centers provides beginning writers with an essential element not found in other types of student-helper interaction. Unlike the usual colloquium that occurs in most classrooms, tutoring offers a one-on-one setting whereby a student can directly consult with, discuss, and turn to an experienced peer for help with as many steps of the writing process as possible. This unique setting offers a chance for tutors to address students’ individual needs using strategic dialogue. Kenneth A. Bruffee talks about the important facets peer-to-peer dialogue brings to the tutorial setting. In his essay, Peer Tutoring and the ‘Conversation of Mankind,’ he discusses conversation and its place within the context of â€Å"collaborative learning.† Bruffee argues that â€Å"thought and writing are special artifacts grounded in conversation. As such, both are fostered by teaching that emphasizes conversational exchange among peers† (Intro, 3). He believes that thought originates in conversation. In general, conversation is a social artifact that can be internalized to encourage thought. Bruffee values peer tutoring so much because, as he said, it "provides a social context in which students can experience and practice the kinds of conversation that academics most value† (7). The dialogue that takes place between tutor and student fosters this kind of thought-provoking conversation. The interaction is one of a kind because it provides a uni que setting whereby â€Å"status equals, or peers† (Bruffee, 8) can discuss matters that are closely at the heart of the writing process. Emily Meyer and Louise Z. Smith, writers of The Practical Tutor, agree with Bruffee on the special contribution peer-to-peer tutoring grants to the process of writing. In their chapter called ‘Engaging in Dialogue,’ Meyer and Smith support Bruffee when they say, "the tutorial conference is an ideal format for such stimulation because it is truly dialogical† (28). This aspect is unique in two ways in that first, it provides the necessary one-on-one component that beginning writers don’t get when they sit in class among several other inexperienced writers. Second and more important, the dialogue that takes place between tutor and tutee stimulates thought that is originated in conversation. According to Bruffee, â€Å"The kind of conversation peer tutors engage in with their tutees can be emotionally involved, intellectually and substantively focused, and personally disinterested" (7). Conversation, in this sense, becomes an ideal way by which inexperienced wr iters can let out their thoughts, opinions, and feelings on a given topic.