By Emily Sok, Published May 29, 2024
Bethany Blankenship is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Montana Western. Blankenship’s research on teaching and learning can be read in the books “The MLA Guide to Approaches” to Teaching The Canterbury Tales and “Linked Courses for General Education and Integrative Pedagogy.” Her scholarship emphasizes basic writing approaches.
Her 2020 article titled “Bricolage and Student Learning” describes how the concept of bricolage, piecing available materials together creatively, is a metaphor for student support. Blankenship coined the term “bricolearners” “to describe students who construct knowledge in an experiential learning environment in an effort to create something new.” By welcoming variation, creativity, and a small number of tools, students can discover what is possible, while creating something new.
Take a look at some of Blankenship’s work:
The Virginia Community Writing Collaborative 