The writing centre's history has been eventful, all the more as its pedagogical innovations increasingly set it in opposition to standard curricular practice. As, on the one hand, classroom instructors absorbed the student-centred philosophy of the writing centre, and on the other, deans and management pressed tutors/mentors to justify their roles and methods vis. curricular outcomes, writing centres struggled to articulate why they matter, other than as a remedial service for poor student writers. Community outreach offers writing centres an opportunity to revive the spirit of discovery and innovation that drove the work and writings of Kenneth Bruffee, Stephen North and others in the 1970s and 80s. The innovations devised in outreach 'laboratories' have pragmatic implications for their primary student clientele. Furthermore, community service offers writing centre scholarship a quarry of research that could contribute to the development of an overarching theory of the writing centre, which some scholars say is the necessary next step, and which others warn may lead to the death of writing centres as we know them.

The learning skills used by students at a technical college to fully participate in their classes were the focus of this investigation. Researchers shadowed two full-time students for one full day as they each went to their classes in a technical college in Qatar. An observation schedule was used to record what students did in their classes (for example: solve problems, listen to the teacher, ask questions). At the end of the day students were interviewed and asked to comment on the importance of the learning skills that they used, how they built the skills they needed and how to become a better student. It was found that students used a variety of learning skills throughout a typical day and that they had their own ideas about learning. The learning skills the two students used most during their classes were not the same, owing partly to the format of the courses and partly to personal learning approach. The four learning skills students identified as most important were: understand and apply concepts to current work; concentrate and maintain focus; follow written instructions; and ask questions. The information gathered in this investigation can be used to inform students, instructors and course planners about the skills students need to be active participants in their classes and to ensure that educators support the development of required learning skills.