Kenneth Bruffee

Kenneth A. Bruffee (September 1, 1934 – January 20, 2019) was an American writing center administrator and professor emeritus in the department of English at Brooklyn College. Often referred to as "Ken" by his friends and colleagues, he is best known for his scholarship on collaborative learning and innovations for college tutoring.

Career Bruffee graduated from Wesleyan University and earned a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University. He taught at the University of New Mexico, Northwestern University, the University of Virginia, Columbia University, Cooper Union, and the University of Pennsylvania, but most of his career surrounded his work at Brooklyn College.

In 1966, Brooklyn College hired Bruffee initially to teach British Romantic literature. and Brooklyn College simultaneously appointed Bruffee to the position of Director of Freshman English. This increase in incoming freshmen necessitated an increase in course sections to teach them. As the Director of Freshman English, Bruffee was in charge of assigning the faculty for those sections but found that the college did not have enough faculty to cover all of the necessary roles, especially while still offering additional writing assistance outside of class. Bruffee innovated a practice that would become one of his most significant legacies: peer tutoring. Throughout the 1970s, Bruffee trained and supervised the peer tutors and documented his practices. Based on his own center’s success, he penned “The Brooklyn Plan” (1978) and shortly thereafter his first book, A Short Course in Writing: Practical Rhetoric for Composition Courses, Writing Workshops, and Tutor Training Programs (1980), as a manual of sorts so that others could mimic his model. enabling himself and colleagues to found and run the Brooklyn College Institute for Training Peer Tutors, which trained peer tutors and encouraged the development of writing centers, writing labs, and writing groups. This training on tutor-training program continued operating for approximately ten years. and a founding editor of its scholarly journal, WPA: Writing Program Association, a publication for which he continued as an editor from 1978 until 1983. Bruffee also directed the Brooklyn College's Scholars Program for over thirty years,

In 2007, Bruffee gave the keynote address at the 25th National Conference on Peer Tutoring and Writing, harkening back to 1984 and the NCPTW's first proceeding, which also had Bruffee as the keynote speaker, In addition, the Council of Writing Program Administrators dedicated their Spring 1986 issue of Journal of the Council of Writing Program Administrators,

Both while he lived and since his death in January 2019, Bruffee's works shifted thinking in disciplines and topics such as writing program administration (WPA), composition and rhetoric studies, writing center studies and their assessment, tutoring, pedagogy, interdisciplinarity, and collaborative learning. His most direct and tangible lasting impact has been on tutor training, a task for which his texts are still common required readings and guiding principles. to discussions on AI, particularly AI in Education.

Publications

Books Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence and the Authority of Knowledge (Johns Hopkins University Press; 1993) A Short Course in Writing: Composition, Collaboration and Constructive Reading (Peason, Longman; 2006) Elegiac Romance: Cultural Change and the Loss of the Hero in Modern Fiction (Cornell University Press; 1983) Doctoral Dissertation: Bruffee, K. A. (1964). Satan And The Sublime: The Meaning Of The Romantic Hero (Order No. 6503244). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Articles and book chapters

Bruffee, K. A. (2008). What Being A Writing Peer Tutor Can Do for You. The Writing Center Journal, 28(2), 5–10. https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1700 Bruffee, K. A. (2003). Cultivating the craft of interdependence: Collaborative learning and the college curriculum. About Campus, 7(6), 17-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/108648220300700604 Brower, A. M., Bruffee, K. A., & Zeller, W. (2002). Do Learning Communities Discourage Binge Drinking? About Campus, 7(2), 4–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/108648220200700203 Bruffee, K., Kogen, M., Fox, L., DeLuca, G., & Johnson, M. A. (2002). Collaboration, Conversation, and Reacculturation. In Dialogue on Writing (1st ed., pp. 63–81). Routledge. Chapter Link Bruffee, K. A. (2002). Taking The Common Ground Beyond Cultural Identity. Change (New Rochelle, N.Y.), 34(1), 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091380209601830 Bruffee, K. (1999). Virtual Reference and Boundary Talk: Joining Conversations Already in Progress. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 8(3), 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls0803&4_7 Bruffee, K. A. (1999). Binge drinking as a substitute for a “community of learning.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 45(22), B8. Binge Drinking as a Substitute for a ‘Community of Learning’ Levine, G., Walzer, K., Noland, C., Bruster, D., Shumway, D. R., Bruffee, K. A., Schuman, S., & Herman, P. C. (1997). The Teaching of Literature. PMLA : Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 112(3), 436–442. https://doi.org/10.2307/462955 Bruffee, K. A. (1995). Sharing our toys: Cooperative Learning Versus Collaborative Learning. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 27(1), 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.1995.9937722 Bruffee, K. A., Palmer, P. J., Gullette, M. M., Gillespie, D., et al. (1994). The art of collaborative learning: Making the most of knowledgeable peers. Change, 26(3), 38-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.1994.9940647 Bruffee, K. A. (1992). Science in a Postmodern World. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 24(5), 18–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.1992.9937125 Bruffee, K. A. (1986). Social Construction, Language, and the Authority of Knowledge: A Bibliographical Essay. College English, 48(8), 773 - 790. https://doi.org/10.58680/ce198611565 Bruffee, K. A. (1985). Liberal Education, Scholarly Community, and the Authority of Knowledge. Liberal education, 71(3), 231-39. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ324014 Bruffee, K. A. (1984). Collaborative learning and the “conversation of mankind.” College English, 46(7), 635-652. https://doi.org/10.2307/376924 Bruffee, K. A. (1983). Reading and writing as social acts. Journal of Teaching Writing, 2(2), 149-154. View of Reading and Writing as Social Acts Bruffee, K. A. (1982). Liberal Education and the Social Justification of Belief. Liberal Education, 68(2), 95-114. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ271396 Bruffee, K. A. (1980). Two Related Issues in Peer Tutoring: Program Structure and Tutor Training. College Composition & Communication, 31(1), 76 - 80. https://doi.org/10.58680/ccc198015970 Beck, P., Hawkins, T., Silver, M., Bruffee, K. A., Fishman, J., & Matsunobu, J. T. (1978). Training and Using Peer Tutors. College English, 40(4), 432–449. https://doi.org/10.2307/376266 Bruffee, K. A. (1978). The Brooklyn plan: Attaining intellectual growth through peer-group tutoring. Liberal Education, 64(4), 447-68. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ194413 Bruffee, K. A. (1973). Collaborative Learning: Some Practical Models. College English, 34(5), 634–643. https://doi.org/10.2307/375331 Bruffee, K. A. (1972). A New Emphasis in College Teaching: The Contexts of Learning. Peabody Journal of Education, 50(1), 8–12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1491981 Bruffee, K. A. (1972). The way out: A critical survey of innovations in college teaching, with special reference to the December, 1971, issue of College English. College English, 33(4), 457–470. https://doi.org/10.2307/375601 Bruffee, K. A. (1971). Elegiac Romance. College English, 32(4), 465–476. https://doi.org/10.2307/374393