What sort of approach should we use to teach writing skills in today's classrooms? Many socially oriented scholars think we should teach context-specific writing skills that address the text's social milieu, whereas cognitively inclined scholars think we should teach more general models that can be adapted to a wide variety of writing contexts. As a number of composition theorists (e.g., Carter, 1990; Flower, 1994; Nystrand, 1989) have argued, a genuine synthesis between the cognitive theorists' general knowledge perspective and the social theorists' local knowledge perspective is necessary if we wish to teach students of diverse backgrounds how to write successfully in a variety of present and future contexts. This article attempts to bridge the misleading dichotomy between local knowledge and general knowledge by applying what cognitive psychologists have discovered about memory, expertise, and the transfer-of-learning to the question of appropriate composition pedagogy.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anderson, J. R.
(1987). Skill acquisition: Compilation of weak-method problem solutions. Psychological Review, 94, 192-210.
2.
Anderson, J. R.
, & Ross, B. H. (1983). Evidence against a semantic-episodic distinction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6, 441-465.
3.
Bakhtin, M. M.
(1986). The problem of speech genres (V.W.McGee, Trans.; C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Eds.). Speech genres and other late essays (pp. 60-102). Austin: University of Texas Press. (Original work published 1933)
4.
Bartholomae, D.
(1985). Inventing the university. In M. Rose (Ed.), When a writer can't write: Studies in writer's block and other composing process problems (pp. 134-165). New York: Guilford.
5.
Bechtel, W.
, & Abrahamsen, A. (1991). Connectionism and the mind: An introduction to parallel processing in networks. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
6.
Berkenkotter, C.
, & Huckin, T. N. (1993). Rethinking genre from a sociocognitive perspective. Written Communication, 10, 475-509.
7.
Bizzell, P.
(1982). Cognition, convention, and certainty: What we need to know about writing. Pre/Text, 3, 213-243.
8.
Brandt, D.
(1990). Literacy as involvement: The acts of writers, readers, and texts. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
9.
Brandt, D.
(1992). The cognitive as the social: An ethnomethodological approach to writing process research. Written Communication, 9, 315-355.
10.
Brown, A. L.
, & Campione, J. C. (1986). Cognitive science principles and work force education. Advances in Reading/Language Research, 4, 217-229.
11.
Brown, A. L.
, Kane, M. J., & Long, C. (1989). Analogical transfer in young children: Analogies as tools for communication and exposition. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 3, 275-293.
12.
Carter, M.
(1990). The idea of expertise: An exploration of cognitive and social dimensions of writing. College Composition and Communication, 41, 265-286.
13.
Clement, C. A.
(1994). Effect of structural embedding on analogical transfer: Manifest versus latent analogs. American Journal of Psychology, 107, 1-38.
14.
Delpit, L.
(1986). Skills and other dilemmas of a progressive black educator. Harvard Educational Review, 56, 379-385.
15.
Delpit, L.
(1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people's children. Harvard Educational Review, 58, 280-298.
16.
Dreyfus, H. L.
, & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986). Mind over machine: The power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. New York: Free Press.
17.
Elbow, P.
(1991). Reflections on academic discourse: How it relates to freshman and colleagues. College English, 53, 135-155.
18.
Flower, L.
(1987). Interpretive acts: Cognition and the construction of discourse. Poetics, 16, 109-130. (Special issue: The new rhetoric and the new literacy theory)
19.
Flower, L.
(1989). Cognition, context, and theory building. College Composition and Communication, 40, 282-311.
20.
Flower, L.
(1994). The construction of negotiated meaning: A social cognitive theory of writing. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
21.
Flower, L.
, & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32, 365-387.
22.
Flower, L.
, Stein, V., Ackerman, J., Kantz, M. J., McCormick, K., & Peck, W. C. (1990). Reading-to-write: Exploring a cognitive and social process. New York: Oxford University Press.
23.
Freedman, A.
(1993). Show and tell? The role of explicit teaching in the learning of new genres. Research in the Teaching of English, 27, 222-251.
24.
Gentner, D.
, & Toupin, C. (1986). Systematicity and surface similarity in the development of analogy. Cognitive Science, 10, 277-300.
25.
Gick, M. L.
, & Holyoak, K. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 306-355.
26.
Gick, M. L.
, & Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical reasoning. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 1-38.
27.
Glaser, R.
(1985). All's well that begins and ends with both knowledge and process: A reply to Sternberg. American Psychologist, 40, 573-574.
28.
Guberman, S. R.
, & Greenfield, P. M. (1991). Learning and transfer in everyday cognition. Cognitive Development, 6, 233-260.
29.
Hintzman, D. L.
(1984). Episodic versus semantic memory: A distinction whose time has come—and gone? Commentary on Tulving, E., Précis of Elements of episodic memory. The Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 7, 240-241.
30.
Hintzman, D. L.
(1986). “Schema abstraction” in a multiple-trace memory model. Psychological Review, 93, 411-428.
31.
Jacoby, L. L.
(1983a). Perceptual enhancement: Persistent effects of an experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 21-38.
32.
Jacoby, L. L.
(1983b). Remembering the data: Analyzing interaction processes in reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 485-508.
33.
Lehman, D. R.
, Lempert, R. O., & Nisbett, R. E. (1988). The effects of graduate training on reasoning: Formal discipline and thinking about everyday-life problems. American Psychologist, 43, 431-442.
34.
Linton, P.
, Madigan, R., & Johnson, S. (1994). Introducing students to disciplinary genres: The role of the general composition course. Manuscript submitted for publication.
35.
McClelland, J. L.
, & Rumelhart, D. E. (1985). Distributed memory and the representation of general and specific information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114, 159-188.
36.
McKoon, G.
, Ratcliff, R., & Dell, G. S. (1986). A critical evaluation of the semantic-episodic distinction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 12, 295-306.
37.
Medin, D. L.
, & Shaffer, M. M. (1978). Context theory of classification learning. Psychological Review, 85, 207-238.
38.
Nathan, M. J.
, Kintsch, W., & Young, E. (1992). A theory of algebra-word-problem comprehension and its implications for the design of learning environments. Cognition and Instruction, 9, 329-389.
39.
Needham, D. R.
, & Begg, I. M. (1991). Problem-oriented training promotes spontaneous analogical transfer: Memory-oriented training promotes memory for training. Memory & Cognition, 19, 543-557.
40.
Novick, L. R.
(1988). Analogical transfer, problem similarity, and expertise. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 14, 510-520.
41.
Novick, L. R.
, & Holyoak, K. J. (1991). Mathematical problem solving by analogy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 17, 398-415.
42.
Nystrand, M.
(1989). A social-interactive model of writing. Written Communication, 6, 66-85.
43.
Nystrand, M.
, Greene, S., & Wiemelt, J. (1993). Where did composition studies come from? An intellectual history. Written Communication, 10, 267-333.
44.
Paas, F. G.
(1992). Training strategies for attaining transfer of problem-solving skill in statistics: A cognitive-load approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 429-434.
45.
Paas, F. G.
, Van Merrienboer, W. C., & Jeroen, J. G. (1994). Variability of worked examples and transfer of geometrical problem-solving skills: A cognitive load approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 122-133.
46.
Palinscar, A. S.
, & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1, 117-175.
47.
Perfetto, G. A.
, Bransford, J. D., & Franks, J. J. (1983). Constraints on access in a problem solving context. Memory & Cognition, 11, 24-31.
48.
Perkins, D. N.
, & Salomon, G. (1989). Are cognitive skills context-bound?Educational Researcher, 18, 16-25.
49.
Posner, M. I.
, & Keele, S. W. (1968). On the genesis of abstract ideas. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77, 353-363.
50.
Posner, M. I.
, & Keele, S. W. (1970). Retention of abstract ideas. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 83, 304-303.
51.
Reeves, L. M.
, & Weisberg, R. W. (1993). On the concrete nature of human thinking: Content and context in analogical transfer. Journal of Educational Psychology, 13, 245-258.
52.
Ross, B. H.
(1987). This is like that: The use of earlier problems and the separation of similarity effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13, 629-639.
53.
Ross, B. H.
(1989). Distinguishing types of superficial similarities: Different effects on the access and use of earlier problems. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 456-468.
54.
Russell, D. R.
(1993). Vygotsky, Dewey, and externalism: Beyond the student/discipline dichotomy. Journal of Advanced Composition, 13, 173-197.
55.
Schoenfeld, A. H.
, & Herrmann, D. J. (1982). Problem perception and knowledge structure in expert and novice mathematical problem solvers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 8, 484-494.
56.
Shaughnessy, M. P.
(1977). Errors and expectations: A guide for the teacher of basic writing. New York: Oxford University Press.
57.
Smagorinsky, P.
, & Smith, M. W. (1992). The nature of knowledge in composition and literary understanding: The question of specificity. Review of Educational Research, 62, 279-305.
58.
Sweller, J.
(1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12, 257-285.
59.
Tulving, E.
(1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 381-403). New York: Academic Press.
60.
Tulving, E.
(1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford, England: Clarendon.
61.
Tulving, E.
(1984). Précis of Elements of episodic memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 223-268.
62.
Tulving, E.
(1986). What kind of hypothesis is the distinction between episodic and semantic memory?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 12, 307-311.
63.
Vygotsky, L. S.
(1986). Thought and language (A. Kozulin, Ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 1934)
64.
Whittlesea, B.W.A. (1983). Representation and generalization of concepts: The abstractive and episodic perspectives evaluated. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, McMaster University.
