Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge by Kenneth Bruffee: A Critical Study

Authors

James Kelly, Miami UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

Spring 2002

Document Type

Article

Citation

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (Spring/Summer 2002) 3(1)

Comments

Copyright © 2002, National Collegiate Honors Council. Used by permission

Abstract

In his very readable book on collaborative learning, Bruffee tells us, “[f]or a decade or more, reports on the state of American higher education have complained that many undergraduates tend to be authority-dependent, passive, irresponsible, overly competitive, and suspicious of their peers” (8). Bruffee’s hope is to help overcome these ills by arguing that “knowledge is a socially constructed, sociolinguistic entity and that learning is inherently an interdependent, sociolinguistic process” (8). While I tend to agree with this characterization of the state of higher education, I shall argue that Bruffee’s postmodern turn, according to which knowledge is a social construct, is a theoretical dead end.