A mediação pedagógica do tutor em um curso de letras inglês a distância: um estudo de caso

Abstract

The general objective of this study is to investigate how is the pedagogical mediation conducted by tutors in a Letters-English distance course of a public University of Minas Gerais. The specific objectives are to identify, through the forums, the interaction between tutor and student in two different disciplines of the course and describe and analyze the types of mediation of the tutors in the virtual learning environment. The distancebased education grows in Brazil and forms annually a large amount of teachers, but it is important to think about the quality of teacher formation courses. Therefore, is essential to investigate how is being perform the pedagogical mediation in this context because it influences directly the construction of knowledge and future pedagogical practices. The survey was conducted by qualitative approach in modality study case. In relation to the data collect technique was used document analysis, and the written documents used were the excerpts of dialogues between tutors and students in the forums of two distinct disciplines of the course. The data analysis was carried through content analysis. The results indicate that the tutor interacted with students in some moments, but the frequency and quality of these interactions revealed the tutor didn’t put himself as a pedagogical mediation, according to the theoretical precepts of Masetto (2010). Thus, this research shows that is essential the tutor to have conscience of the need to act as a mediator between knowledge and the student and to can thus to favour students learning and contribute to a quality formation in the distance-based education. Moreover, it’s essential that the tutor to be a recognized professional, valued and to make possible to him to be better prepared to appropriate of the functions that are his responsible and can to act more competently. Because he is a central figure in teacher formation distance courses and therefore deserves to have another look to this professional so that to improve the quality of teaching.