Teaching Writing in Community Colleges: A Situated View of How Adults Learn to Write in Computer Based Writing Classrooms

Traditional models of writing focus on steps learners should take to produce writing without considering the learning context and its affect on the process. Proponents of situated cognition argue that adult cognitive processes can be better understood by examining how setting, culturally provided tools, and social activity structure learning and empower learners. Drawing upon these theories, the authors describe a qualitative study designed to investigate how adult learners learn to write in the social context of the computer-based developmental writing classroom. An analysis of coded data from student interviews and journals indicated that computers as writing tools gave students a sense of control over their writing and shaped their perceptions of how they wrote. The classroom's interactive social culture allowed learners to review each other's work and to construct their own knowledge about writing.