Bruffee sees education as a reacculturation process through constructive conversation. He identifies two types of knowledge as a basis for choosing an approach. Foundational knowledge is the basic knowledge represented by socially justified beliefs we all agree on. Correct spelling and grammar, mathematics procedures, history facts, a knowledge of the contents of the constitution, etc., would represent types of foundational knowledge. These are best learned using cooperative learning structures in the early grades.
Nonfoundational knowledge is derived through reasoning and questioning versus rote memory.
The other way in which nonfoundational education differs from foundational is that it encourages students not to take their teacher's authority for granted. Students should doubt answers and methods for arriving at answers provided by their professors, and perhaps more importantly, they need to be helped to come to terms with their doubts by participating actively in the learning and inquiry process. Out of this process new knowledge is often created, something not likely to occur when dealing with the facts and information associated with foundational knowledge. Collaborative learning shifts the responsibility for learning away from the teacher as expert to the student, and perhaps teacher, as learner. Bruffee sees the two approaches as linear, with collaborative learning being designed to pick up where cooperative learning leaves off.