What is the role of reflection in assisting student writer's develop "judgment" or "phronesis"—that is, the skill (for which there is no rule) to apply rules, to mediate between general rule and particular instance, to develop the virtue of reflective deliberation that determines right application?  (see Phelps, Composition as a Human Science, 216-17).
What is the nature/importance of phronesis in Composition?

Research Approach

Constructivist

Knowledge Claims
(methodology)

Hermeneutical

Strategies of Inquiry

Narrative/Case Study?—Scholarly-Dialectic

Methods

Text/rhetorical analysis

Sample/Sampling

Collect and analyze the scholarly/philosophic writings on reflection and phronesis from Aristotle to Dewey to Schon to Gadamar to Lyotard, Foucault and Kent, Spiro, Farrell, MacGee

Other disciplines to import—education theory (Moon, Mezirow), student development (Baxter-Magolda, King and Kitchener), cognitive psychology (Hayes)

Data Analysis

Chart out key conceptions of phronesis and reflection and the relationship these scholars believe exists between theory and practice

Dialectical debate with other scholars

Possible Results

There is a lot of theorizing about the importance of practical wisdom, phronesis and reflective judgment. This scholarly, philosophic inquiry would seek to pull them all together within one framework in order to conceptualize the role of reflective judgment/practical wisdom for the Composition teacher.  Key relationship with kairos and rhetorical stance.

Assessment

I've been doing a lot of this philosophizing already, so I have much of this material. This philosophizing goes beyond Composition and gets at a phenomenological heart of the relationship of "knowledge" as episteme, "knowledge" as techne, and knowledge in particular contexts.  Really interesting stuff. Deep.

Possible problem—As this inquiry relates to Composition, there is the developmental question. Most scholars and researchers like King and Kitchener say that individuals develop this reflective judgment over time. Young people are not developed enough to have this capacity.  But the key question is—is there a way to develop this capacity in Composition? Are there techniques?  This philosophic study would not really get at this question, but suggest it strongly. 

WGRA?—This study is really philosophical, but it is touching on significant stuff.  I think it would have an appeal like MacGee's work or Gadamar's. It would not really touch practice that much except through further scholarly reference and dialectic brought into the practical.  It could be seen as the groundwork for a future research agenda focusing on the practical implementation of these philosophical principles.