As práticas discursivas de uma tutora em fóruns de discussão do curso de pedagogia a distância da UFJF: foco estratégias que contrinuem para a promoção da aprendizagem colaborativa

Abstract

This thesis aims at investigating the practices of a tutor in an online discussion forum for distance education. Specifically, it aims at identifying and analyzing through the tutor’s discursive practices, pedagogical strategies that may add to the development of collaborative learning in the discussion forum. Even though the literature emphasizes the importance of this contribution, there are few studies that present both tutors and professors with practical examples that guide their performance in virtual learning environment. On theorethical grounds, the work discusses Vygotsky´s notions on the development of Cognition and Learning, which are a precursor to the idea of collaborative learning. In this work, we focus on collaborative learning supported by the computer, highlighting the reflections of the following experts: Silva (2006), Pallof & Pratt (2002), Tijiboy et ali (2009), who understand that knowledge construction is accomplished by interaction. Besides, a review and a discussion of Argumentation Theory is carried out, focusing the argumentative marks proposed by Koch (1984, 1997), Damianovic’s (2009) collaborative argumentative situations, and Ducrot’s (1987) postulations on argumentation. The context of this research is an online discipline of the Pedagogy distance graduation course of Federal University of Juiz de Fora, through Universidade Aberta do Brasil (UAB) project. The corpus of analysis is the tutor’s discursive practices in six discussion foruns. The results of this study point out strategies that may encourage collaborative learning in online discussion forums, providing theoretical and practical support that guide professors and tutors’ performance in the online environment. This study also presents theoretical and methodological contributions to the use of argumentation in studies on collaborative learning supported by the computer.