Research report Group Learning Environments Competences of the tutor in virtual learning environments, based on the student's social imaginary

Abstract

The following article presents the final report of the results yielded by the exploratory research project entitled Development of Teacher Competencies in Virtual Environments from the Students’ Social Imaginaries, carried out during the first semester of 2006. The overall objective of this research is to identify and describe the competencies that the tutors within the Specialization of Learning Environment Design should possess. Further, it takes into account the social imaginaries the students have related to their tutors and their expectations with regards to the educational process they are undertaking. This research identified the expectations, perceptions, and, in general, the social imaginaries of the virtual students within the Specialization in Learning Environment Design. The population of this study, comprised of 35 virtual students of the Specialization in Learning Environment Design, was distributed into the 3 cycles of studies (four month terms). One crucial discovery of this research established that in the virtual environments the tutors, helped by the tools provided by the ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies), not only must strive to achieve the transmission of their pedagogical and academic stance on a specific topic, but also they must be aware that their students are constantly constructing an imaginary which is a representation of their tutor who they always want to approach as a person rather than as a source of knowledge. This study allows the formulation of a hypothesis for future research at Uniminuto: Apart from having managerial, social and intellectual competencies, the tutors should be able to identify the social imaginaries created in their virtual classrooms as these have great impact on the students’ learning process.