Integrating Social and Psychological Perspectives on Writing as a Learning Activity

Abstract

Both the psychological perspective and the social perspective on writing have been demonstrably successful theoretically, empirically, and pedagogically. The goal of this paper is to show that these two perspectives on writing as a learning activity are not only complementary, but each requires the other for full intelligibility. How can these two perspectives be connected in order to understand writing to learn? It is argued that writing is specifically a technology for amplifying the power of natural language to integrate cognitive representations and processes across individuals. Social and cognitive processes play a role in wtl on historical, ontogenetic, and microgenetic time scales. Theories that integrate these two perspectives, including genre as social action, Vygotskian sociocultural theory, and distributed cognition are applicable to writing as a learning process. Recent programs of research on writing to learn have frequently been conceptualized in cognitive terms; however, they also illustrate social processes, particularly the emergence of new subgenres. Composing in the New Literacies includes practices that are collaborative, digital, and multimodal. These practices can be unpacked into an interplay of cognitive and social processes, which contribute to learning during composition.