August 2014 - Challenges for teacher qualification in distance education

Revista FGV Online
Year 4 – Number 1 – July 2014
ISSN 2179-8729

Sumário
5 Editorial
7 Professional certification: alternative for qualification
of ODL working professionals
17 Educommunication and 21st century
teacher qualification
31 Corporate education as a tool to prepare executives to
obtain better results for the organization
35 Beyond the chalk
43 Tutoring FGV Online: the search for excellence in
tutors’ profile
51 Unexpected difficulties in first tutoring sessions: a view
of mentoring
63 Engaging interactions for eLearning: 25 ways to keep
learners awake and intrigued

5
Editorial
Tutor training and qualification is one of the major challenges faced by Distance Education. Technology-mediated practices in
virtual learning environments, teaching qualification – whether aimed at mainstream basic education teachers or corporate
education tutors – and teacher certification are much debated by educational institutions. That is why this edition presents
a series of articles that discuss the various features that permeate Distance Education (DE) tutor training and qualification.
The president of the Brazilian Distance Education Association (Abed – acronym in Portuguese), Fredric M. Litto, opens up
the discussion with the article entitled Professional certification – alternative for qualification of ODL working professionals,
which highlights the importance of creating a certification program for these practitioners. Abed is currently working on
certification proposition that assigns the Association the leading role in setting the norms to be complied with by certifying
entities regarding DE tutors’ required competences and skills.
Professor Dr. Ismar de Oliveira Soares, with the University of São Paulo (USP) builds the case for making technology an
integral component of DE tutors’ daily tasks, study and reflection. His article Educommunication and 21st century teacher
qualification refers to renowned authors to further the discussion on Educommunication and to support USP’s School of
Communication and Arts (ECA/USP)’s proposition of a Practicum Degree in Educommunication.
When interviewing professor Maristela Rivera Tavares, manager of academic materials design with FGV Board for Educational
Solutions, the director of FGV Management (FGV-SP) Paulo Lemos highlights the importance of corporate education in
preparing executives for achieving the best results for the organization they are with.
In order to explore mainstream basic teachers’ qualification, professors Raquel Villardi (FGV/Uerj), Márcia Spíndola (Uerj) and
Sílvia Helena Mousinho (Uerj) investigate practical issues of primary teacher qualification during the supervised practicum.
In their article entitled Beyond the chalk: the challenge of supervised practicum in distance teacher education programs they
discuss practices in both distance education and face-to-face undergraduate teacher qualification programs in the light of
systematic teacher observation.
Focusing on tutor qualification, professors Rebecca Villagrán Reimão Mello Seoane and Nayane Caldeira – the former
coordinator and the latter assistant coordinator of FGV Online Tutor Training Program – discuss the role played by tutor
competences in achieving distance education excellence. Their article entitled Tutoring FGV Online: the search for excellence
intutors’profile discusses MEC’s Higher Distance Education Quality Benchmarks (ReferenciaisdeQualidadeparaaEducação
Superior a Distância) upon which FGV designed a tutoring model aimed at excellence of the teaching and learning process
and continued tutor development.
From a mentoring perspective, Neila Rockenbach Xavier and Débora Maria Lautenschläger Piccoli Guimarães explore the
problems encountered by tutors that might hinder students’ learning process. Their article Unexpected difficulties in first
tutoring sessions: a view of mentoring advocates improving novice tutors’ selection, qualification and evaluation process.

6
Last but not least, a contribution to distance education practices using technology is provided by journalist Cristina Massari’s
review of B. J. Schone’s e-book Engaging interactions for eLearning: 25 ways to keep learners awake and intrigued. Schone
is the editor and founder of the website elearningweekly.
FGV Online Newsletter is a channel that fosters open discussion of education-related themes, with a special eye to distance
education. We invite you to further explore these themes as a contributor. FGV Online Newsletter is a theme-oriented
publication issued twice a year. Our next edition will be about Distance education public policies (check how to submit your
article!).
Enjoy your reading!

7http://www5.fgv.br/fgvonline/revista
Professional certification: alternative for qualification
of ODL working professionals
Fredric M. Litto is professor emeritus of the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo, president
of the Brazilian Association for Distance Learning (ABED) and member of the Board of Trustees of the International Council
of Open and Distance Education (ICDE).
Abstract
The certification of theoretical and practical competency among distance education professionals cannot be left exclusively
in the hands of higher education institutions which characteristically create obstacles to the modernization of didactic
methodsandresistpedagogicalexperimentation.Thenecessityofhaving,onthenationalsceneofprofessionaldevelopment,
non-academic entities composed entirely of distance education professionals, and which periodically hold examinations
covering current knowledge and information, is of the greatest importance, guaranteeing to society in general the high
qualification of those possessing certification by their professional colleagues, a European dating from the 12th century.
The Brazilian Association of Distance Education – Abed – is elaborating a model of certification, beginning with that of the
“manager” of distance learning programs, which will bring benefits to professionals and employers. Examples of possible
types of tests, an explanation of the process of obtaining approval of the project within Abed, and the decision of Abed to
not assume the role of certifier but rather that of “author” of the norm to be used by multiple and varying certifiers within
Brazil and abroad, complete this study. [FML]
Keywords: distance education; professional development; professional certification; professional proficiency.
1. INTRODUCTION
When Austrian author Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) wrote his celebrated book Brazil, Land of the Future in 1941, he certainly
had the intention to satisfy the people of his new homeland. Fleeing Nazi persecution and the horrors of global war in
Europe, he was the most widely read author in the world at the time and hoped to find the necessary peace in Brazil to
carry on with his work. His book does not mention education and it couldn’t since the country’s basic education was elitist
and sparse. College education – particularly the study of the humanities – had started only two decades earlier, when the
University of Brazil began its operations in Rio de Janeiro, in 1922. While Spain founded universities at remote colonies in
the Americas in the late sixteenth century, the throne of Portugal, afraid of “thinking institutions”, for centuries did not
provide their colonies with real research centers dedicated to physical and social Sciences, thus confirming the popular joke:
“Brazil, land of the future, and so it will remain.”

8 http://www5.fgv.br/fgvonline/revista
The general delay of formal education in Brazil still continues, keeping obstacles to modernization of teaching methods
and resisting experimentation of teaching/learning techniques which are successfully used in other countries with similar
geographical, historical and social characteristics. Perhaps the most striking example is the difficulty with which “distance”
learning has been received. Correspondence courses successfully began in Brazil in the 1940s, focusing on technical and
vocational content, which ended up creating a stigma in the popular imagination, particularly among the country’s higher
education teachers (ALVES, 2009). In the UK, higher education ODL began in 1858 when the University of London – created
in 1853 to be the “people’s university” (and was distinguished from the universities for the aristocracy) – began to use
printed materials and postal service to deliver a wide range of courses to thousands of students in its own territory and the
colonies around the world. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were among its celebrated alumni. In North America, the
universities started using correspondence courses in the last decades of the nineteenth century, reaching students in rural
areas of the countries.
In Brazil, the idea of delivering higher education to a non-traditional public did not begin with any innovative educational
leadership, but rather with a wise and thoughtful legislation: the Education Bases and Guidelines Law from 1996, whose art.
80 mentioned, practically for the first time in national law, the existence of an inclusive form of higher education – ODL –
and established the legal equivalence of diplomas issued by institutions authorized by the Ministry of Education (Education
Bases and Guidelines Law). It took another two years before the Ministry started issuing the first permits, although the
University of Brasilia begun a battle to create an Open University already in 1979, an attempt repeatedly rejected by the
Ministry of Education and the National Congress (AZEVEDO, 2012).
Even so, once the authorization for distance learning programs began, the growth was explosive – the number of college
students increased over 1,000% in just 10 years (CENSOEAD.BR, 2013). Where did the pertinent professionals – such as
educators, experts in audiovisual media and printed materials, business managers, and so on – come from? After all,
although Brazil was highly regarded in the 70’s for its achievements in ODL – with the Saci Project, the Telepostos in
Maranhão, Telecurso and several other initiatives – almost all of those projects were discontinued during the following
decade and specialists were scattered. Improvisation, the celebrated national solution, came into effect! Thousands of
professionals without any ODL experience were hired across the country, many of whom tried to repeat the face-to-
face learning methods, producing courses that involved “talking heads” for long periods, and simply scanning the same
discursive and tedious texts to a new generation of students who are used to interactivity, agility and promptness.
Fortunately, an intriguing phenomenon took place repeating a positive past experience. When the area – nowadays
called information technology – began in the mid-50s, there were no courses dedicated to the subject leading to
academic degrees. Specialists who worked in the then called computer sciences were individuals trained in different
fields of knowledge – mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology and linguistics, for example – who brought along a rich
tradition of scientific practices, such as methodologies, validations, distributed working groups, detailed documentation,
among others – thus building a solid foundation in the new area. The Brazilian experience with ODL was essentially the
same – workers from all academic fields building new knowledge through practical experiences. Still, what is missing to

consolidate the universe of ODL professionals in Brazil is a certification program, non-academic in nature, that is, not so
heavily theoretical, impractical and redundant when it comes to university graduates. What we really need is a program
with professional profile, going beyond taught knowledge and skills, involving autonomous operations and proficiency
in the use of interactive tools. A program based on the philosophy according to which what the person knows is more
important than where or how he has learned.
2. RETROSPECTIVE
Professional certification has a long history in European civilization and, to modern eyes, is considered somewhat romantic.
Although Brazil does not have a tradition for certifying basic professions, such as electrician, plumber, and activities that in
other countries require proper local licensing in order to ensure quality of service, eventually it will be necessary to do so
due to the increasing complexity of the world today.
The first found evidence of professional certification dates from the 12th century in Europe with the development of
entities for this purpose, such as guilds, unions, professional associations, corporations – for artisans, merchants and other
professionals. Created by a royal decree or by the Town Hall, they exhibited and engraved their coat of arms in products,
such as shields and weapons, among other objects. Their objective was to ensure the quality of products or services. They
pursued mutual protection of members, economic regulation and control, monopolies and internships in education (in
1563, Elizabeth I created in England a statute establishing the seven-year period professional internship). Although there is
evidence that the Romans created guilds for musicians as early as the seventh century, the first professional group of this
category occurred in England around the year 1350. We are aware of the weavers (1155), the goldsmiths (1300 – and their
meeting place, the Goldsmith’s Hall, which still exists as a major tourist attraction), cloth merchants and manufacturers of
armors, barrels and candles, among others. In 1986, there were 96 professional corporations in London – 38 of them with
their own meeting halls.
England, home of the Industrial Revolution, has today the National Qualification Framework, which establishes different
levels (total of eight) for business complexity, drawing a parallel with the academic levels – bachelor, licentiate, master,
doctor and so on – but clearly directed to vocational activities. Below is a shortened and simplified version to establish the
concept of level delimitation of occupational complexity, thou recognizing that it is a dynamic “map” of the subject and
periodically updated:

LEVEL LEVEL INDICATORS EXAMPLE OF QUALIFICATION
Entry Initial basic skills
There are three levels of entries in a
range of topics
Level 1 Ability to apply learned subject under tutoring
Plaster worker
Auto mechanic
Level 2
Ability to acquire good knowledge in a professional
working field
Soccer coach
Beauty specialist
Level 3
Attends university, works independently, supervises
other people
Auxiliary teacher
Small pets sitter
Level 4
Presents high level of information and knowledge.
Equivalent to a university degree
Sports supervisor
Lease manager
Infant technician
Level 5
Able to devise solutions and answers to complex
problems and situations
Civil construction supervisor
Theatrical producer
Level 6
High level of knowledge allowing the use of own ideas
and research (lato sensu graduate degree)
Equivalent to have a business
administration degree
Level 7
Senior Professionals and Managers (lato sensu graduate
degree)
Translator
Music initiation
Level 8 Experts or prominent practitioners of specific field Received specialized awards
Source: OFQUAL.
What are the benefits for the candidate to be certified by a committee composed of peers? Professional recognition,
competitive advantage for replacement in the market, mobility in the labor market (currently, companies dispute skilled
labor) and international recognition (when the professional moves abroad his professional certification goes along). What
are the benefits for institutions seeking employees for their distance learning programs?

Organize the labor market; adapt to the rapid technological assimilation, [...] meet the needs of quality production, [...]
simplify recruitment and selection of employees by providing objective information about candidates, [...] recognition of
skills acquired on the job; wider range of opportunities and options. (GUIBERT, 2012)

3. A NATIONAL EXPERIENCE
In 2009, in order to identify professionals with appropriate and necessary skills to successfully operate in the area, the
Brazilian Association for Distance Education – Abed – launched the ODL Professional Certification, a non-academic although
professional qualification. A group of senior members of the Abed, with experience in certification of vocational education –
and the aid of Paul Rech, an expert in this field – initiated studies to develop skills and abilities involved in two professional
categories: manager and tutor (GT-ABED)1
. Other occupations, such as instructional designer, technical supervisor, expert
evaluation and content manager remained for further consideration. The group considered appropriate that certificates
issued to those approved be valid for a period of five years. It was also decided that Abed, keeping the tradition of not
performing activities which essentially compete with those offered by its members, would not offer preparatory courses for
the applicants; instead it would issue a Guidance Manual describing the general aspects of the exams. Such manual would
establish parameters to keep a level playing field for all those who formulate the questions, candidates and exam evaluators.
After all, there are some controversial issues in ODL, starting with the terminology of the area: there is potential for confusion
regarding the use of certain terms, such as open, distance, flexible, distributed, online learning and e-learning.
Orientation meetings with ABNT and INMETRO were conducted to ensure the correct project initiation. The Working Group
(WG) also sought guidance – and possible partnership – with the largest and most important awarding organization in the
world, Edexcel, a UK centennial entity: there was an expectation about following their protocol in the exam conduction
process, so that Abed could also be an international awarding body.
During the development and reinforcement of the involved competencies and skills, the working group followed the
guidelines provided by Rychen and Salganik as well as Kuenn et al, whereby
The term competence is used to denominate a complex action system which encompasses cognitive
skills, attitudes and other non-cognitive components.
Accordingtosuchholisticperspective,theterm‘competence’embracesarangeofmentalprerequisites
that shall be mobilized (Rychen and Salganik, 2003). In our work, we follow the approach of the
above mentioned authors and make a distinction between the terms ‘competence’ and ‘skill’. More
specifically, the term ‘competence’ is reserved for a group of skills, referring to a single fundamental
dimension, forming a condition for the performance of complex and varied tasks, both inside and
outside the working sphere. In this sense, the ability to heat the oven, the ability to cut the meat,
and the ability to name different herbs encloses skills, while the combinatorial knowledge is what
makes a competent cook. (KUENN et al)
1 GT-ABED. Abed acknowledges the volunteer and highly qualified collaboration of the following members who represent the productive and academic
sectors: Arlette Guibert, Consuelo Fernandez, Gley Fabiano, Ivete Palange, Luciano Gamez, Marta de Campos Maia, Rita Maria Tarcia and Silvia Fichmann.

The complete and updated report on Skills for distance education: theoretical frameworks and matrices is available on
Abed’s website.
Besides the definition of involved competencies and skills, the Abed group intensified the procedures for examining
applicants, that is, how the candidate should demonstrate that he has the ability to apply – in updated practice – the
theories and experiences involved in the performance of the specific profession. It was established that, after an initial
assessment of the candidate’s resume, it would be in the form of rigorous tests consisting of questions – objective and
essay, but without formulation solely based on a theory, whether educational or socioeconomic – a typical procedure of
the academy, which has a specific and different purpose.
For instance, in the discursive part of the examination where competence in managing ODL programs is demonstrated, the
Abed study group intended to ask the candidates to prepare simulated planning for the development of a new program of
higher education ODL, following a diverse group of scripts. As follows:
• define a project – a new ODL program – and choose a target for it;
• identify and assess both the resources to which you have access and the needed resources (for example, time
and money);
• give priority and refine the set target;
• balance the required resources in order to meet multiple goals;
• learn from past actions and estimate possible future outcomes;
• monitor progress, making necessary adjustments as the project develops. (OECD)
Or this example of script for the ODL manager test:
• develop a marketing plan (for an ODL course) directed to (a) the prospective student, (b) the employers;
• prepare the job description (job profile), a newspaper ad and questions for the recruitment interview of ODL tutors.
• Attention was also given to the dissemination of the plan: on Abed’s and WebAula’s websites; on “Digital Reports”
sent to the electronic mailing list of the Association; at conferences and seminars of Abed in Curitiba, Recife and
Santos; and a national news story (Valor Econômico, 2009).
4. RELUCTANCE
In Brazil, however, where there is no tradition of professional certification for people working or wiling to work in education,
or in other areas of the humanities, our plans found a small but vocal opposition when presented at the Association General
Assembly, in Fortaleza (Ceará), on September 29, 2009. Some members questioned the release of this type of program for
ODL professionals in the country. It was evident that the proposed program was bothering universities and companies that
resist external reviews.

Among the critical points raised at the General Assembly are the following:
• it is the first time I hear about it; there was no prior announcement;
• the program is a corporative, biased, fiscal and legalistic gesture;
• it seems to propose a new “business model”;
• the Working Group includes people who offer OLD management courses, thus constituting a conflict of interest;
• in Brazil, there is an anti-certifying culture – especially among teachers (folklore)2
;
• international certification is irrelevant – there are more job opportunities in Brazil.
Besides these points, there was strong criticism about the partnership with Edexcel because the British company belongs
to the group of companies owned by Pearson, the world’s largest editorial organization dedicated to education (including
the provision of educational content and technology services related to ODL). The fear, clearly expressed by the critics, was
that Pearson could manipulate the formulation of bidding documents of public and private entities in Brazil so that the
accreditation planned by Abed would be a requirement for service providers who intend to meet such calls for proposals.
There was an effort to explain that the plan outlined by Abed was not an attempt to:
• compete with the institutions members of Abed;
• obtain monopoly in the market;
• form a cartel (price fixing);
• interfere or replace the supervisory activities of the Ministry of Education.
But it did not help and the project was removed from the agenda for reconsideration by the Board.
Otherwise, prior to the General Assembly, there was a positive reaction from the professional community – 52 persons
registered interested in being candidates for the exam and another 13 people were “very interested”, even having to pay a
fee of R$ 1,500.00 each to undergo the process in the second half of 2009.
During the subsequent Board meeting a few weeks later, it was recognized the potential value of such a program whose
continuity and development were approved, leaving for a future date, not yet defined, the question of joining or not an
international institution.
The continuity of the certification program development was approved by the original working group, with the addition
of some other components. In the following year, the Board selected the following theme for the 19th Abed International
Congress on ODL (held in Salvador, Bahia): “Good Professionals carry out Good ODL Programs: How are we doing?” It was
2 I can not resist the temptation to mention this urban folk legend: A rich farmer, jealous of his BMW, refused to give the car key to his son or wife, but
did not hesitate to give the key of an imported harvester worth more than $ 1 million dollars to a semiliterate and under qualified employee, far short of
understanding the functions displayed in the control panel of the sophisticated computerized technology.

an instigation aimed at contributing to the improvement of the ODL practice in the country. However, the defeat of 2009
discouraged the members of the Working Group, reducing productivity during the months that followed. In 2014, however,
work was resumed and, currently, Abed is formulating a new proposal for certification, submitted by unanimous consent of
those attending the Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) of the International Council of Open and Distance Learning
(ICDE), held in Lisbon, Portugal, in December 2013.
The major announcement is the decision of changing position: instead of assuming the role of a certifier, Abed will be
“generating the norms” to be used by multiple and varied certifying bodies in Brazil and abroad. Thus, Abed, as a scientific
society, will only be responsible for the intellectual and scientific part through its contribution in determining the relevant
ODL skills and abilities, leaving for other entities, either public or private, the task of applying the identified criteria, making
use of the available human, financial and legal resources to conduct examinations and grant certificates. Currently, we are
developing the “norm” to be submitted to ABNT, in accordance with that organization. Nevertheless, we believe that there is
a lack of knowledge about the Brazilian community of professionals, knowledge and information that will only be achieved
through research on the scope of our own performance.
5. CONCLUSION
Although ODL is not exactly a new practice, the introduction of digital media in the process represents a true revolution,
demanding from the institutions and companies that offer ODL programs, new types of talent, inventiveness and vision.
The explosive growth of online higher education in Brazil forced the institutions to promptly adapt options of face-to-face
education to those who had never worked before with education oriented to this new generation of professionals. There
are examples of successful and less successful cases. Now, it’s time to evaluate what has happened, what is happening
and what should happen regarding those in charge of ODL in Brazil, with a question: what areas of vocational training do
they come from? Are those with no academic background more “liberated”, more innovative? Have the teams composed
by different educational and professional experienced people acted more successfully or have they presented operational
issues? What are the most appropriate ways to carry out continuing education for ODL professionals?
Also relevant are all forms of studying the patterns of training and experience, attitudes and expectations, ambitions and
claims of that generation responsible for the production of ODL in Brazil, namely senior and junior (tutors) educators,
scientists, psychologists, designers , programmers, video producers or marketing managers. The different specialties that
compose the community of professionals involved create an important contribution for the advancement of the modality,
increasing the quality of ODL activities and creating conditions to ensure the satisfaction of working in the area. Thou “the
future” still remains ahead.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
ALVES, João Roberto Moreira. (2009) A história da EAD no Brasil. In: LITTO, Fredric M.; FORMIGA, Marcos (Eds.). Educação
a distância: o estado da arte. São Paulo: Pearson, 2009. v. 1. pp. 9-13.
AZEVEDO, José Carlos de Almeida. (2012) Os primórdios da EAD no ensino superior brasileiro. In: LITTO, Fredric M.; FORMIGA,
Marcos (Eds.). Educação a distância: o estado da arte. São Paulo: Pearson, 2012. v. 2. pp. 2-5.
BRASIL. Congresso Nacional. (1996) Lei de Diretrizes e Bases: Lei nº 9.394, de 20 de dezembro de 1996. Diário Oficial da
União, Brasília, DF, 23 dez. 1996. Retrieved from: www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9394.htm on June 16th 2014.
CENSO EAD.BR. Relatório analítico da aprendizagem a distância no Brasil 2012 = CENSO EAD.BR: Analytic report of distance
learning in Brazil. Traduzido por Opportunity Translations. Curitiba: Ibpex, 2013. Portuguese version retrieved from: <www.
abed.org.br/censoead/censoEAD.BR_2012_pt.pdf> on June 16th 2014. English version retrieved from: <www.abed.org.br/
censoead/CensoEAD.br_2012_INGLES.pdf> on June 16th 2014.3
GUIBERT, Arlette Azevedo de Paula. (2012) Certificação dos profissionais da EAD. In: LITTO, Fredric M.; FORMIGA, Marcos
(Eds.). Educação a distância: o estado da arte. São Paulo: Pearson, 2012. v. 2. pp. 389-395.
KUENN et al. (2013) Competencias: requirements and acquisition. Maastricht: Research Centre for Education and the
Labour Market.
LITTO, Fredric Michael (Coord.). (2012) Competências para educação a distância: matrizes e referenciais teóricos. Relatório
do Grupo de Trabalho para Certificação. Abed, ago. 2012. Retrieved from: <www.abed.org.br/documentos/Competencias_
Final_Ago2012.pdf> on June 16th 2014.
LITTO, Fredric. (2002) The hybridization of distance learning in Brazil: an approach imposed by culture. The International
Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, v. 2, no. 2, jan. 2002.
______. (2008) Public Policy and Distance Learning in Brazil. In: EVANS, Terry; HAUGHY, Margaret; MURPHY, David (Eds.).
International Handbook of Distance Education, Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing, 2008. pp. 671-684.
OECD. (2005) The definition and selection of key competencies: executive summary. Retrieved from: <www.deseco.admin.
ch/bfs/deseco/en/index/02.parsys.43469.downl> on June 16th 2014.
3 CensoEAD.BR is an analytical, yearly and bilingual report concerning ODL in Brazil.

OFQUAL: Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. Retrieved from: www.ofqual.gov.uk/help_and_advice/
comparing-qualifications on June 16th 2014.
RYCHEN, D. S.; SALGANIK, L. H. (2003) A holistic model of competence. In: ______. Key competencies for a successful life
and a well-functioning society. Göttingen: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.
VALOR ECONÔMICO. (2009) Abed lança certificado para profissionais do setor. Valor Econômico, 14 de agosto de 2009.
ZWEIG, Stefan. (1981) Brasil, país do futuro. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira.

Educommunication and 21st century
teacher qualification
Prof. Dr. Ismar de Oliveira Soares
Incumbent professor with USP (São Paulo State University), coordinator of USP’s ECA’s Educommunication Practicum
Program and supervisor of Educommunication projects. Author of Educomunicação, o conceito, o profissional, a aplicação
[Educommunication – the concept, the expert and application] (Paulinas, 2011).
Abstract
This paper builds the case for Educommunication as the theoretical and methodological framework to guide 21st century
teacher qualification. To support our case, we refer to Italian philosopher Umberto Galimberti (Action Theory), Spanish
philosophers Jesús Martín-Barbero (Communicative Ecosystem) and Javier Echeverría (Third Environment Theory), Brazilian
educator Paulo Freire (Dialogical Education) and German philosopher Jürgen Habermas (Theory of Communciative Action).
Opposing the utilitarian paradigm imposed by educational marketing which binds teaching and learning processes to
technology efficiency, Educommunication advocates teacher and learner autonomy and ownership of technical resources
in order to build creative open communicative ecosystems within learning environments. This paper advocates developing
teacher and learner non-cognitive and socio-emotional competences that facilitate the community’s adhesion to
transforming technology-mediated projects into languages that foster the construction of a differentiated, expressive and
more compassionate world. To fulfill this aim, adequate 21st century teacher qualification requires turning teachers into
managers of communicative processes in which dialogue driver of instructional planning and action.
Keywords: Educommunication; technology-mediated actions; teacher qualification; communicative ecosystems; socio-
emotional competences; management of communicative processes.
1. INTRODUCTION
A great deal of today’s discussion on education explores how emerging technologies may influence the way an individual
perceives other people and relates to them, thus developing and changing the environment they are in. In what concerns
teaching processes, technology is still viewed by many as a mere set of teaching tools – irrespectively of how sophisticated
they may be. Others view technology as a condition of civilization, almost like a communicative ecosystem in which
education should nest to foster achievement of its guiding purpose – promoting learning.

Within this context, it is often advised that technologies, so rich in virtues, be embraced in teachers’ daily practices. The
guiding argument of this paper goes beyond such concerns into claiming that technologies should be assumed as education’s
object of study and reflection. In this paper, educators’ approach to technologies translates as Educommunication.
Five authors are relied upon to support the discussion of the ‘man versus technology’ phenomenon. We will initially draw
on Umberto Galimberti, Jesús Martín-Barbero and Javier Echeverría, then on Paulo Freire and finally on Jürgen Habermas
to support USP’s School of Communication and Arts (ECA/USP)’s proposition of a Degree in Educommunication as an
alternative for qualifying teachers in mediating the use of technologies in learning environments.
2. MAN, TECHNICS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Italian philosopher Umberto Galimberti’s (2006) work Psiche e techne develops a detailed and thought-provoking historical-
anthropological critique of technics as a requirement for the emergence of man as a rational being. His work presents
Action Theory, which argues that human intelligence was not responsible for developing technics, but rather the latter
would have enabled man to develop his own rationality and to ensure survival on Earth.
Galimberti argues that men have a close and cause-effect dependence on technics. Men differ from animals not because
they are superior on account of reason and intelligence, but because they lack the instincts that may guide them to
thoroughly fulfill their needs. The lack of instinct-based support for immediate problem solving of environment-related
hardships would have led the human race to fateful extinction if the gap between need and fulfillment had not driven men
to action. Fulfillment – resulting from experiences – provided the necessary conditions for man to develop his ability to
analyze, systematize and organize the world around him.
His theory claims that given a wide array of stimuli and possibilities, the sequence of successes and failures enabled man
to take a step back from its most immediate needs (an ability animals are not endowed with) and to design procedures and
techniques that allowed this frail and unequipped being to rule the planet and develop culture.
Contrary to animals, the human organism is not sensory and therefore, not able to respond to environmental stimuli. It is
rather a productive apparatus that acts and thus, develops its own living environment as a response to action.
That is, action or intervention upon the environment causes the emergence of situations and objects that did not exist
before – but which are created by man’s action and his ability to challenge the very environment developed by him. For this
philosopher, there is no actual difference between nature and culture, as in anthropological terms, technics – the feature
that enabled the emergence of culture – is a natural constituent of man. There is no man without technics. Had it not been
the mediation of technics – born from action – human intelligence would have remained a latent power and would not have
led to action, reflection, self-awareness and ability to solve problems and transcend them.

Technologies stand for the multiple forms through which technics manifest. Galimberti argues that technics would rather
be a leverage of culture or culture itself, a second nature to man without which man would not see himself as human.
For him, without technics, man would not have become aware of his intelligent and rational nature, and able to construct
knowledge, make history, dream and produce.
By regarding technics as second nature, Galimberti does not view technologies as artifacts as we understand them today –
from the most rudimentary (the wheel) to the most ingenious ones (the digital world and its never-ending breakthroughs)
but rather as a set of devices through which man seeks solutions for his needs and life demands. In other words, man is
intelligent because he does things. Technologies, as technics by-products, take on a new dimension – advances or setbacks
in the way man acts upon the world.
This philosopher calls our attention to the fact that the so-called progress, born from technologies, can yield not only
evolution and advances but also setbacks! We are all too aware of certain technologies ended up out of their creator’s
control, winning autonomy over man, suffocating him and ruling over him under the form of ideologies.
Thus, the more complex we make a technical tool, the more we weave it into other tools and magnify its effects, but also
reduce our ability to understand processes, effects, and – if we wanted to – the objectives we are bound to. This gap between
technical production on one end and human perception on the other end often leads us to feel not fit to our actions. And
when actions are at the service of something beyond our control or understanding, we lose the ability to react.
Galimberti explains that passive nihilism as discussed by Nietzsche emerges exactly when something disproportionate
freezes us at the threshold of something we are not able to grasp. Most disasters result rather from technics that regulate
and certify the economic regime, actions and measures taken by leaderships or a group of individuals than from intentional
effects aimed at by decisions we make. As a consequence, we become emotionally illiterate, unconcerned about our
afflictions, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and environmental damages, taking the concomitant huge wealth of some
and extreme poverty of others for granted.
As technologies are developed and embraced as indispensable face to the progress we have achieved, they give way to
self-destructive procedures that lead us to feel the need to reinvent technics in an attempt to assign some meaning to
technology and thus, reassure our ability to analyze and anticipate future realities by using our intelligence and rationality.
Air pollution is one of the most recent examples of the hegemony of technologies over politics which undermines our
pragmatic ability of analysis and anticipation. The Italian philosopher warns us that:
“Our ability to anticipate can not be wiped out – this ability that the Greeks had assigned to
Prometheus, the inventor of technics, whose name literally means ‘the one who sees by anticipation’
[Pro-methéus]. It is this ability that today’s man lacks, as he is no longer able to anticipate r even
imagine the effects of his doings. We must prevent the ‘age of technics’ to become a landmark of this

absolutely new – and perhaps irreversible – time in history and ask ourselves “What will technics do
to us”? rather than asking “What can we do with technics?”.” (GALIMBERTI, 2006:827).
Galimberti argues that we should not acquiesce to the fact that technics has not become totalitarian (four fifths of mankind
are still excluded from its most visible benefits), as the decisive step towards absolute technics, towards the machine of the
world would have already been taken, although our emotional nature has not realized that yet. Hence, it is high time we
reinvented technics!
It should be noted that both classical philosophical thinking and modern essentialist science oppose Galimberti’s work as
neither wishes to compromise on the principle that sustains the primacy of reason over other senses of man and place such
primacy as the driver of economics and social organization. In spite of such disagreement whatever judgment is passed on
this philosopher’s views, the reflection that supports the discussion of this paper is the following: through action we can
take a stance towards the future of this planet, plan such action and educate our people. This is the technical reason that
supports the realm of Educommunication.
3. A NEW TYPE OF TECHNICITY: COMMUNICATIVE ECOSYSTEM
In his September 2008 discussions about information technology with USP’s School of Communication and Arts Post-
graduate students, Spanish-Colombian philosopher Jesús Martín-Barbero focused primarily on the meaning technicity is
taking over culture in information society. For him, culture changes as soon as the technological mediation of communication
becomes structural and is no longer instrumental.
Martín-Barbero (2005) claims this is a turning point in human history, when we are faced with a new type of technicity
whose particular feature is to constitute the structural component for developing a true communicative ecosystem. This
emerging ecosystem is associated to a new cognitive economy which not only defines what is meant by knowledge but also
specifies how knowledge is produced.
This author claims that the computer is not a mere machine, since it stands as a new technicity that enables the processing
of raw data such as abstractions and symbols, resulting in a new relationship between the brain and information which
replaces the traditional body-machine relationship. Knowledge sharing is thus undergoing changes and leading to one of
the deepest paradigm changes any society can go through. Knowledge is now disperse and fragmented, out of control and
reproduced out of its – up to now – traditional environments of dissemination, like family, school and church.
Martín-Barbero assumes that information technology (its tools and content knowledge) has become a new paradigm
of society’s organization, given that: i) it is interwoven with its material composition products; ii) it is interwoven with
production processes; iii) it has become a product in itself.

It follows that information society has set in motion worldwide interconnectivity between everything that has some
informational value – corporations and institutions, peoples and individuals – while it disconnects everything that has no
value for informational purposes. We would thus be experiencing the deepest reorganization and reassignment of power
through what we understand as our world today.
Both Umberto Galimberti and Jesús Martín-Barbero seem to end up feeling somewhat disappointed and at times, to share
an undisguised apocalyptical view about the impact of technologies in man’s present life and actions – although such
stance does not rule out the assumption that intelligence, a product of technics, may reorient, through practice, the same
reasoning that was diverted by subversive logics. For both authors, man can trace his way back by becoming aware of the
need to exercise his control over technologies through well-designed plans aimed at sustainable global development. To
fulfill this aim, education about technics and the world of technologies is essential.
4. MASTERS OF THE AIR AND THE THIRD ENVIRONMENT
The same proposition is put forward by Spanish philosopher Javier Echeverría (1999) – education that allows clear
understanding of the nature of technics, mediated by available communication technologies (media and internet) and
carried out within a new ecosystem that is linked by digital communication.
Echeverría called this new ecosystem the third environment,1
a representational and multichronic phenomenon that can
yield huge benefits for society like distance communication (breaking the notion of territory) and networking, which
renders invaluable services to human collectivity by broadening possibilities of expression for all social categories. Within
this environment, however, there are serious barriers to free access to such benefits, which result from a silent but effective
quest for worldwide control initiated by society minorities located at the top of the technological pyramid and which have
been called masters of the air.
Contrary to what happens in the second environment, new power holders are not states or public institutions – both
potentially under society’s control – but worldwide Telecommunications and ICT (Information and Communication
Technology) multinationals that impose their own rules (which serve their own interests) upon states and consumers, who
remain hostages of these corporations’ schemes.
1 Javier Echeverría calls the first environment the ecosystem around the natural environment, around man’s body and community organization: the
clan, the family, the tribe, with their habits, rituals and languages. The second environment would be human condition resulting from the so-called
urban-centered material progress – the polis, the market, the workplace, cultural practices, religions, the exercise of power. The third environment
comprises the set of information and communication media tools that allow man to get away from the first two environments. According to the
author, living in the third environment has been facilitated by a set of seven tools: the telephone, the radio, television, electronic money, telematic
networks, multimedia and the hypertext.

This author reminds us that it is not technology per se, but man – within the context of his quest for controlling information
sources (which have become merchandise) – who generates this new conflict, given that technology is just a means in itself.
So to ensure the digital world’s humanization, Echeverría claims for the rise of a civil counter-power to face the increasing
control that the masters of the air have bestowed upon themselves through their strategic alliances. This is thus a political
approach to technological tools, even when the object under question is educational processes.
5. COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES ACCORDING TO FREIRE AND HABERMAS
Paulo Freire showed little enthusiasm for technologies, but was concerned about technology manufacturers’ and sellers’
marketing. Although he introduced data processing laboratories in mainstream state schools in the city of São Paulo while
he was Secretary of Education, he assigned only relative importance to computers in education, but rather focused on
human relations between those involved in the educational process – teachers and students (GÓMEZ, 1999). His book
Extensãooucomunicação? (1970) became one of the most popular and inspiring sources for alternative communication and
education practices in all Latin America by strongly opposing what he called industrial instruction, which is unfortunately
still delivered in most educational institutions. Also known as banking instruction, this methodology is primarily based on
the mere transfer of content knowledge from the teacher to the students without promoting thoughtful investigation of
what is being studied or the discussion of arguments based on critical analysis. Students, thus, become passive recipients
of knowledge. This functional teaching and learning mode features no collaborative participation in the construction of
new meanings.
Freire’s views on the interface between Communication and Education have inspired a dialogical perspective to the use of
several communication media and to the need of reframing education from the perspective of communication processes
that are inherent to teaching and learning.
Another philosopher that discusses dialogical action is Jürgen Habermas (2002), author of Theory of Communicative Action.
For Habermas, man’s key action as a social being is not his work or production, but communication. Therefore, he argues
for a deeper analysis of this praxis. His reflections, however, do not stem from specific observation in either the field of
Education or Communication, but from observing the world as a wholesome social environment.
Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action evolves from the awareness that people use language for social organization
and this process unfolds from interactions in which interlocutors seek consensus but no coercion into intense exchange
of arguments that lead to acknowledging and validating the principles that stem from this ideal linguistic interaction.
Interlocutors seek mutual understanding and communication can, thus, validate propositions or legitimacy rules that
may only emerge from the participants’ agreement through their speech. This interaction reflects the exchanges between
interlocutors through freely engaged discourse.

Freire and Habermas are referred to in this paper not as a methodology for fostering dialogue, but rather specifically
to build on the possibility of social transformation of reality resulting from communicative practice in consonance to
Galimberti’s, Martín Barbeiro’s and Echeverría’s above discussed ideas – they all argue for man getting over his dependence
on technologies through Action Theory.
6. COMMUNICATIVE ACTION IN TEACHER QUALIFICATION
With regard to teacher qualification, we dare say that the civilizing model, as discussed above, makes the redesign of
teacher functions a strategic must in teacher qualification management.
This redesign tackles not only fostering the understanding that instructional practices should go beyond a one-all model
into an all-all model, but also advancing the understanding of the very nature of the communication process that unfolds
within the communicative ecosystem of the so-called third environment. Teachers must be reeducated to leave behind the
knowledge-transmission role and embrace an inquisitiveness-developer role. More than ever, the use of new technologies
requires educators to learn how to dialogue with their students so to mediate a more thoughtful exchange of arguments
and procedures oriented towards the development of critical attitude. We are not arguing for constructing a new rationality,
but for taking on a new attitude towards life. Therefore, communicative action should also take into account what modern
psychology calls socio-emotional or non-cognitive competences.
This was the theme of the congress held in the city of São Paulo in March 2014 by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), which gathered representatives of 14 countries to discuss the impact of non-
cognitive competences in learning. Participants concluded that learning was directly subject to the quality of teachers’
performance – gauged by teachers’ socio-emotional competences – as mediators of the learning process. In other words,
‘new [attitude]’ learners will depend on ‘new [attitude]’ teachers! The discussions led the Brazilian Ministry of Education to
offer scholarships for post-graduate studies on the nature of said competences.
The debate on teachers’ quality as mediators of learning has focused mainly on teaching practices. Studies conducted by
Mizukami (1986), with PUC/RJ’s School of Education, compared whether the teaching and learning theories viewed by
teachers as the best fit for the present times were actually translated into classroom practices by those very same teachers.
Findings showed a gap between what is preached and what is done – the latter still focusing on traditional or the so-called
banking practices. Mizukami discussed the need to review teacher qualification processes to include more cognitive and
socio-cultural experiential activities with these more recent theories to enable teachers to reproduce them in their future
teaching practice.
Likewise, Perrenoud (2000) argues that current teacher qualification should comprise at least the development of what
he calls 10 families or branches of competences: (1) organizing and managing learning situations; (2) managing learning
sequencing; (3) designing and fostering development; (4) engaging students in autonomous learning and tasks; (5) team

working; (6) participating in school management; (7) communicating with and engaging parents; (8) using new technologies;
(9) dealing with professional obligations and ethical conflict; (10) managing their own continued education. Perrenoud
admits this is not a final list, but rather a checklist to be regularly reviewed and updated in the light of the context of an
ever-changing world.
Alongthesameline,asimilarpropositionispresentedbyLeitão&Justa(2013),whoaddcommunication,masteryoftechnologies
and promoting human relations among modern teaching possible competences and required abilities. It should be noted that
concerning technologies, these authors do not mean the mere instrumental capacity-building for classroom use, but mainly
for instructional use oriented by specific practices that develop the various required competences.
All the above referred contributions about teaching competences, however, do not go beyond the realm of baseline teaching,
even when they value the so-called socio-emotional or non-cognitivecompetences. They do not discuss the current civilizing
priorities explored by Galimberti, Martín Barbero, Echeverría, Freire and Habermas that refer to the political-technological
constituents of the third environment communicative ecosystem. The latter limits and conditions man’s way of acting and
being in the world, and in this sense, the ‘new’ teacher should add to the teaching competences and to valuing students’
subjectivity a view of the world that would complement traditional teacher qualification – the educommunicative paradigm.
7. EDUCOMMUNICATION TOWARDS COLLABORATIVE LOGICS
Echeverría’s concern about the mastersoftheair controlling what Barbero (2005) identifies as the communicativeecosystem
leads us to reflect about the logics that underlie those policies that place education at the heart of the clash between the
right to freely construct knowledge and knowledge imprisonment by communication channels privatization. It is precisely
at this crossroads that Educommunication emerges as crucial to making the three sectors of society – public power, private
enterprise and schools – walk hand-in-hand towards a broader scenario as the one that civil society has featured since mid
20th century in promoting collaborative logics to develop social living models within the third environment. Teachers’ and
learners’ technological autonomy becomes a priority, then, the goal of Educommunication.
Experts’ papers, as well as multinational marketing communications, have repeatedly stated that technologies must be
put at the service of education. The lessons we have learned from the authors that supported the initial discussion herein
are contrary to this proposition. They suggest that education takes over the communicative ecosystem from the hands
of excluding and hermetic models set by the so-called information society. We argue for a reversed route: in addition to
placing technologies at the service of education, it is imperative that education be at the service of full awareness of what
technologies mean for society. This is precisely the “action” (Galimberti) that Educommunication should serve.
This is also the point made by Martín-Barbero (2005) when he warns us that intellectual property – the legal support to the
privatistic view of the masters of the air – clashes against the potential unveiled by information technologies, requesting
from lawmakers, system engineers, public developers and managers, politicians and educators an additional imaginative

effort to design new forms of democratic regulation that are able to safeguard the multiple forms of proprietary rights
– and still keeping them apart from the plot designed by economic conglomerates to hold control over international
information. A warning to educational communities: turn the much-debated theme of technologies into educational action
to clarify the nature of information society to the greatest number of people of all generations.
The education system is responsible, on one hand, for keeping ‘healthy’ information about the communicative ecosystem
fostered by technologies and aimed at its democratization, and on the other hand, for monitoring – in what refers to
procedures – what some civil society entities define as the competences to be dealt with by 21st century educators. Amongst
such competences we certainly find the non-cognitive and socio-emotional competences, taking into consideration children,
adolescents and young adults’ quick adhesion to educommunicative pedagogy when they are provided with access to
technologies, to knowledge that can explain technologies and their logics, and especially when their power to transform
said technologies is acknowledged – the power to transform technologies into languages that initiate the construction of
a differentiated, expressive and more compassionate world.
8. DEVELOPING TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ EDUCOMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES
The pedagogy embraced by USP’s Communication and Education Center (NCE, in Portuguese) in consultancy developed for
the Education Bureau of the city of São Paulo has effectively implemented small projects that involve teachers, students
and education communities to value the association between the logics that underlie well-defined educational approaches
and students’ and teachers’ socio-emotional potential regarding collaborative processes.
The optimal pace of implementation led to the dissemination of Educommunication in 455 municipal schools between
2001 and 2004. The small projects that connected media-related production (including the use of radio language, video
production and the use of digital technologies) with cross themes that were relevant for both teachers and students have
promoted not only teachers’ and students’ learning but also broad school adhesion to Educommunication in the ten years
elapsed since project inception.
To achieve Educommunication aims, educators must not only efficiently manage project-based instruction but also manage
communicative processes considering that the major lesson to be learned by teachers and students alike is the need to
collaboratively build a new world using open and creative dialogue as a persuasion tool. Communication management
consists of regarding communication as a process in which those responsible for guiding the tasks are also responsible
for mediating the relationships within a given environment so as to promote dialogue and pluralism (COSTA; LIMA,
2009) and thus develop and strengthen communicative ecosystems (SOARES, 2002). Only communication management,
relying on everyone’s engagement and creativity, may ensure the appropriate use of technological resources and optimize
communication between community members (SOARES, 1999).

9. DEFINING EDUCOMMUNICATION
For NCE (ECA/USP)2
researchers, Educommunication is defined as
[...] sets of actions that are inherent to the planning, implementation and evaluation of processes,
programs and products oriented towards developing and strengthening communicative ecosystems
within educational or virtual environment, as well as towards improving the communicative ratio
of educational actions, including those related to the use of information resources in the learning
process (SOARES, 2002:24).
In other words, Educommunication was acknowledged by NCE/USP as a human living environment that experienced the
concept of communicative management – not as a new methodological or teaching approach, but as a much broader and
deeper concept or, better still, a new paradigm in the Communication/Education interface. It was actually a political and
instructional movement rightfully born within civil society that aimed essentially at developing collaborative relationship
processes. Specific competence-related practices required for social transformations enabled higher level public education
academic acknowledgement and validation 15 years later.
It should be noted that along the past 15 years (1999-2014), according to CAPES theses database, over 100 studies on
Educommunication (Master’s dissertations and PhD theses) were developed in post-graduate programs in the areas of
Communication, Education, Social Sciences and Psychology all over Brazil (PINHEIRO, 2013). Such studies evidence that
the major feature of the practices in the above referred fields comprise implementing specific actions that are driven by
teacher-student-educational community strategic alliances that lead to establishing collaborative learning communities.
Such practices stem from empowering students towards the development of communicative ecosystems in which there is
intense Exchange of ideas and actions, which are mediated by open access to information technologies.
The emergence of this field led to outlining the profile of a new professional, the educommunicator, who is able to plan,
coordinate, implement and evaluate his/her teaching practices taking into account that such practices are mediated by
(analogical and digital) technologies and the communication management processes that enable the aimed education.
In 1998, the 1st International Congress on Communication and Education promoted by NCE/USP, Professor Geneviéve
Jacquinot, Sorbonne University, defined the teacher-educommunicator as part of her Communication/Education research.
She highlighted the following set of specific knowledge, abilities and competences:
• acknowledging that mass and multicultural education allows students to go beyond the acquisition of school knowledge;
• valuing young learners’ mediatic (analogical and digital) culture;
2 The research entitled Inter-relações entre communication e educatção na cultura latino-americana [‘Interrelations between communication and education
in Latin American culture’] was conducted by the Communication and Education Center (NCE) of São Paulo University’s (USP) School of Communication
and Arts (ECA) in 1997/1998 in collaboration with experts from 12 Latin American countries, under this author’s coordination.

• viewing communication media as repositories of information content and mediator of world representation processes;
• empowering students as subjects of communicative processes, in which they alternatively play the roles of receivers
and senders, thus taking on the role of active agents and creators of new content and meanings;
• using communication media in teaching and learning processes to show students, through practice, the economic,
ethical and political power it yields;
• explaining and practicing discourse, audience and context clues that build into and assign meaning to messages;
• mediating instructional processes and moving beyond unilateral transmission of content;
• promoting intense reflective dialogical processes between students, that is, what Bohm (2008) argues to be
developing ‘thinking together’ processes.
Geneviéve Jacquinot identified possible points of contact between the educommunicator’s action features proposed by
NCE/USP and those competences expected from teachers that are qualified to deal with the so-called socio-emotional (or
21st
century) competences developed by students in their daily school life.
10. A EDUCOMMUNICATION NA ESCOLA DE COMUNICAÇÕES E ARTES DA USP
Since the publication of the findings of NCE researchers in 1999, which assessed Educommunication as a new field
of social intervention, ideas about this theme have spread over Brazil and Latin America. There followed a demand for
courses on theories that underlie the new proposition, leading the School of Communication and Arts (ECA/USP) to
design an undergraduate program, a strictu sensu (Master’s and PhD) post-graduate program and extension activities
centered on Educommunication.
After negotiating for some 10 years with the University Dean, ECA started the first Educommunication undergraduate class
in 2011 so as to meet the demand for this new professional, the educommunicator.
The program aims primarily to qualify teachers for managing communication in educational environments and other
education-oriented environments, and is aimed at those who want to teach primary and secondary school, as well as to
those who wish to render communication technology-mediated services in the educational system and at organizations,
communication entities and corporations.
Additionally, since 2012, ECA/USP has also offered a Specialization course in Educommunication at non-degree lato sensu
post-graduate level, whose target audience comprises primary and secondary teachers as well as those who work in the
media and in corporate education.
Educommunicator qualification complies with the requirements set forth by Law no. 9394 of December 20 1996 which
establishes the Brazilian Education Baseline Directives. These directives introduce communication, its languages and related
technologies as content knowledge and methodological resources to be developed in primary and secondary education.

This reality challenges us with something much more complex than the learning of technologies. It reflects the qualification
of responsible and critical citizens, for whom a new paradigm of educational communication is required.
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Interview: Paulo Lemos
Corporate education as a tool to prepare executives
to obtain better results for the organization
Paulo Lemos, FGV professor, director of FGV Management in São Paulo.
By Maristela Tavares
Corporateeducationisanimportantissuefororganizationsthatintendtodistinguishthemselvesinthemarketplace.Inorder
to prepare their executives to obtain better results and increase competitiveness, organizations use corporate education
programs through partnerships with specialized institutions or through corporate universities within the institutions
themselves, both face-to-face or distance education. Below, an interview given to the academic production manager of the
board for Educational Solutions at FGV, Maristela Rivera Tavares where professor Paulo Lemos, director of FGV Management
at FGV Sao Paulo, discusses these concepts.
Do you believe that the growth of corporate education is associated with some kind of vacuum left by formal or
college education or is it indeed a natural movement to complement higher education?
I believe some people might have this deficiency and seek to remedy such inadequacy with executive education, but this is
not the main goal of corporate education. It intends to give the executive the required knowledge and skills at each stage
of his career, enabling him to become more productive and achieve better results for the company.
How can corporate education make an organization more competitive within its own market segment?
The business world is always evolving and there is great competition between companies. There is a need for the company
to be increasingly productive and capable of inventing new things. And it can only do this through people. If the executive
is not prepared, not trained, if he has no such knowledge or ability, he will not achieve that in his organization. The
pressure among competitors creates the need for the company to constantly provide training to their executives. That’s
why corporate education is growing so much and will continue to grow.
We know that corporate education means more than just conducting training sessions. It seeks to include employees
into the strategy of the organization. Therefore, they need to feel involved with the proposed program. How does
one arouse such interest?
First of all, it is not that simple. The executive is inserted within the organization. The corporation has to understand that
from the moment it provides training to executives they acquire new skills and knowledge. So, the executive can not be put
back in the same place, at the same position, doing the same things. The organization must be prepared to make the most

of that executive. Also, as this process happens, the executive gets more satisfied with the company. He feels included;
he sees that the organization has prepared a position for him, based on his newly acquired knowledge. That’s a well done
integration. But I repeat – integration has to be a two-way street.
What may organizations which promote corporate education programs require or expect in return from their employees?
If the corporate education offered to the executive is really good, it has a purpose. It means you need a person with
specific knowledge and skills. So, all of that will be connected to one another. Return comes because the company was also
prepared to make the most of that executive. Nowadays, the pressure is increasing and competition is fierce. Companies
have to be aware that it’s not enough just to train the staff. It also needs to be prepared.
To receive him back…
To receive him back and have the return of the investment.
How can organizations measure such return of investments in corporate education?
If you want to measure through an internal rate of return on investment, it will be very difficult to measure. But for example,
if training took place, it has prepared a new challenge for the executive, a new position. The result that he brings in this new
position allows us to see that there is a return. Measuring in numerical terms is somewhat difficult. I do not know any way
organizations can do that because it is virtually impossible. However, the company can see the result in terms of what that
executive is offering to the company after the program.
Do you believe that the lack of skilled labor – which is a topic that concerns most organizations – can be minimized
through strategies focused on corporate education?
Corporate education is not enough. You must have it in different areas ... In the executive area, it became huge, but as a
whole, you need to provide training in all areas. Organizations must offer better training, for example, to their engineers.
Engineers must be continuously developing. Doctors, good doctors study all the time. Every week they keep a few hours
to study. This is continuous in all areas, not only in executive education. Executive education is more visible because of the
competition between firms. In all areas, there is a need for people to be continuously evolving and watching the whole
development of the economy as a whole. If not, that organization will lag behind.
What about distance learning? How can it be used within the process of executive education, in a program of
corporate education?
Both, distance education and classroom-based education have the same goal. They should be used according to what is
best for the organization at that time. For example, Vale do Rio Doce has mining operations in the middle of the Amazon
region – executives working there can not afford to take a face-to-face course. So, for them, the choice must be a distance
course. But if the person is able to take a classroom-based course and enjoys the live interaction, he must choose a face-to-
face. In distance learning programs, you also have this interaction. It is mediated by technology, but it exists. Basically, the
organization should choose which method best fits its needs and maybe even have a mix of both. They are equally good.
Both have the same goal and both reach their goals.

How do you see the current corporate education market? Is the trend for large organizations to create their own
areas of educational solutions, similar to corporate universities, which are multiplying and taking over the whole
process? Or should they turn to outsourced partners with expertise in this area?
I work for FGV, so my answer may seem a little biased. Then, let’s consider another area: where a certain equipment or
specific skill or knowledge is not the “core” [focus] of the business. What does the company do? It contracts out because
outsourcing is much cheaper and gives more flexibility to the organization. Not for its core business, but for the surrounding
business. Companies do this outsourcing. Executive education is not the core business of these organizations. Obviously,
as stated earlier, they need to know what they want. They need to have people within the organization who know what it’s
necessary and get ready for that. There is no use to create a university within the company. You have no flexibility. And
you will have difficulties following the developments in all areas, including education. I see corporate education much more
as an area within the corporation that is getting prepared to hire what it needs and makes a good plan to get back the
executive who was prepared that way.

Beyond the chalk
The challenge of supervised practicum in distance teacher education programs
Raquel Villard
Associate professor with the Post-Graduate Program in Public Policies and Professional Qualification – State University of
Rio de Janeiro.
Márcia Spíndola
ABD (doctoral candidate) with the Post-Graduate Program in Public Policies and Professional Qualification – State University
of Rio de Janeiro.
Sílvia Helena Mousinho
ABD (masters candidate) with the Post-Graduate Program in Public Policies and Professional Qualification – State University
of Rio de Janeiro.
Abstract
Despite the relevance of this curriculum component, a number of questions interweave the practical qualification of primary
education teachers as they undertake their supervised practicum. This article examines some of these issues, especially the
discussion on systematic observation, as it builds into a framework of practices that feature this discipline within both face-
to-face and distance undergraduate courses. It also highlights the responsibility of teacher education schools within the
current scenario of mainstream basic education. Finally, the potential of supervised practicum in distance teacher education
courses is explored as a catalyst of effective changes in the Brazilian educational system.
Keywords: supervised practicum; schools of teacher education; distance teacher education courses.
“Since educating children is no longer viewed as a family’s responsibility, teacher
education aimed at mainstream schooling became, in turn, a responsibility of the
State and a recurring issue of social policies.” [free translation]
Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury
1. INTRODUCTION
Deficiencies in basic mainstream education in Brazil, especially concerning state education, are widely known. Although the
debate flares anew every time news is released by international media about Brazil’s disparaging position in international
rankings, no effective measure has been taken to reverse this situation.

On the other hand, there is little or no mention to the fact that our learners do not fail by themselves or intentionally, or that
hordes of children are not interested nor take the effort to study. Our students fail because our schools have historically
failed in their primary function – that of facilitating students’ learning. On top of the much debated flaws of our educational
system, we must acknowledge that we have not been able to educate future teachers to appropriately hold the ground in
the classroom and beat the challenges they Will face in their teaching practice.
Although the legislation provides for teaching practice to be integrated to formal teacher education – “Teaching practice
must be addressed from the onset of a teacher education program and interweave it throughout teacher qualification1
–
teaching practice is only actually experienced during the supervised practicum.
A compulsory component of any teacher education curriculum, the supervised practicum is like a ritual of passage – when
future teachers walk through the classroom door and experience “critical features of identity and knowledge construction
and of the attitude expected of a professional practitioner” (Pimenta; Lima, 2008:61). Therefore, framing a practicum model
that prepares future teachers to develop teaching excellence throughout their life should be at the heart of the whole
teacher education process since its inception, for face-to-face and distance programs alike.
2. SOME ISSUES RELATED TO THE PRACTICUM
Although the practicum is a most relevant curriculum component, several other issues tackle the development of a basic
education teacher’s teaching practice. Grasping these issues may help us to have better qualified teachers who are also
better prepared to help their students construct their knowledge.
The first issue to be investigated regards the practicum model. According to the legislation in force,2
every higher education
institution is allowed to design their own model – which would be very positive if there were baseline parameters to be
complied with. As there are none, various models abound and requirements range from incipient to highly complex as they
rely on various conceptions. The results, as it may be expected, could not be less varied.
Such diversity of models allows, at times, student-teachers to meet their whole practicum hours’ requirement by attending
one single class delivered by classmates during a workshop for the Teaching Practice discipline, or by producing a statement
issued by an educational institution that they have delivered an “x” number of lessons... This somewhat stunning perspective
would be analogous to expecting a Dentistry graduate student to be prepared to perform professionally after having
practiced a single cavity filling during his whole higher education qualification….
1 Resolution CNE/CP no. 1, of February 18, 2002.
2 Supervised Practicum for teaching qualification must comply with both Resolution CNE/CP no. 1/2002, which sets directives for teaching qualification
programs and Law no. 11.788, of September 25, 2008, which provides for all practicum activities at all qualification levels and fields in Brazil.

The second issue stems from the first. Despite the various models adopted, pursuant to The General Provisions for
Supervised Practicum,3
teaching practice development relies upon two academic activities – teaching guidance delivered
by the higher education Institution and supervision conducted by the mainstream basic educational school where the
practicum is undertaken.
Concerning teaching qualification, however, the practicum does not lie upon a bipartite but rather a tripartite framework,
once the driving concept of the teaching practice delivered by the higher education4
is subdivided into two dimensions –
providing guidance about how to teach and ensuring the correct and appropriate what to teach. The supervision conducted
by the basic education school where the practicum is undertaken aims to ensure the relevance of the teaching practice to
the class it is destined to, as well as its cross- and interdisciplinarity with other school subjects said class is taught.
This tripartite framework requires from both individual and institutional parties the availability and willingness to negotiate
the trainee teacher’s adequate and relevant functions and activities, once these functions will directly affect the ultimate
results achieved by the class under his/her responsibility – either developing or hindering students’ learning process.
When the effective integration of these three components and the engaged participation of student-teachers in the daily
school life of the class under their responsibility does not occur, the practicum eventually becomes a hindrance to the
smooth development of school activities and routine, as student-teachers are not integrated to the school environment.
To mitigate the negative outcomes of such situation, some institutions have created a “central practicum office” staffed
with clerical professionals who are responsible for all the red tape – required documentation – and an instructional support
team in charge of supervising trainee teachers’ practicum at both levels – academic and professional.
Nevertheless, what actually happens is that the above intended guidance usually translates into one single visit from the
instructional staff on the student teacher’s actual teaching day – the last day of the practicum. Prior to that, the student
teacher only observes experienced teachers and engages in out-of-class activities – what can be defined as a rather passive
participation, with no intervention in the daily school teaching. And eventually, student-teachers end up being awarded a
certificate that enables then to be an educator...
The third issue is of even greater concern. As the back bone of the “axis around which all theory and practice revolves”,5
the
supervised practicum should actually be the means through which a student-teacher becomes a professional of education.
3 Law no. 11.788/08, with special consideration of Art. 3 §1.
4 Although rare, there exist cases in which guidance and supervision are performed by one same teaching expert, who is responsible for all the functions
comprised by these two dimensions.
5 Resolution CNE/CP no. 1/2002, Art. 11, Item. VI.

Still, after at least 14 years of schooling – nine in basic education, three in high school and two in higher education – a
student-teacher is still relegated to sitting and observing, at most to doing out-of-class activities...
In trying to find some sense for so much observation in the 21st century, we assume that observation is viewed as a way of
learn by looking – as in old times – which is, nonetheless, antagonistic to a learner-centered and learn-by-doing approach
prescribed by current literature and legislation, aiming to provide student-teachers with increasing opportunities of practice
to develop their autonomy, responsibility and teaching competence.
It is assumed that by observing other teachers, student-teachers may breathe in new airs and gain insight into something
different from the “moldy” methodologies, integrated teaching projects and interdisciplinary themes they have learned at school.
However, as per the resources that are available at school and the results our basic education has shown, this is not the case.
Another assumption is that student-teachers reflect on the teaching practices they observe and use the fruits of their
reflection in renewed discussion to be held within the school environment. Reality, however, shows that reflection-on-
action does not generate reflection-in-action, as reflection seems to end up translated into a report submitted for the
purposes of course final grades.
It is also assumed that the observed teachers become a role-model of competent and effective teaching practices that can
be replicated. Nevertheless, as the practicum takes place in state schools, student-teachers find themselves in a desolate
environment full of all sorts of problems and setbacks – not quite a model of teaching practice excellence.
These three issues hold a cause-effect relationship with Art. 7 of the National Education Guidelines and Framework
Law (LDB) – CNE/CP no. 1/2002. This Article provides for Basic Education Teacher Qualification at Higher Institutions to
establish a “systematic interaction” between the higher institution and the mainstream basic education school where
the supervised practicum takes place by developing shared, collaborative teaching projects that would further enhance
student-teachers’ qualification.
We are not arguing for bringing the so-called schools of application into this process. We argue for higher institutions to
be truly committed to providing quality professional experience and for teacher education schools to become catalysts of
improved basic education. Or still, for ensuring that student-teachers have access to suitable and consistent practices that
promote effective outcomes in what refers to students’ learning process and right to citizenship.
3. STUDENT-TEACHERS
A qualification process that ultimately produces a passive and report-writing practicum while keeping student-teachers
away from actual teaching cannot be viewed as suitable for the purposes of preparing student-teachers to take on their
teaching role and put all the theory they have learned into confident, creative and learner-centered practice.

Knowledge acquisition is a complex process in which individuals relate with society, education and work. Only by reflecting
and bridging theory to concrete problem-solving practice on a daily basis can professionals consolidate what they learn at
school and commit to the teaching-learning process as a life-long investigation process, as claimed by Moraes:
Which are the literature references that can guide our search for a new educational paradigm that
is able to reconcile scientific and technological advances, renewed teaching practices and men and
women’s (re)constructed knowledge about the world? (MORAES, 2004: 23).
The relationship between practice-theory-practice established by reflection-on-action and -in-action shapes and organizes
teaching practice, once “theory cannot replace nor do without practice, but suitable theoretical references are critical for
efficient practice”. (Barata-Moura, 1977:34 – free translation). Not having a sound theoretical background disables this
process and the commitment towards innovative practice. Emerging issues like school violence and using emerging media
then clash against old problems like lack of physical and organizational resources, overcrowding, outdated instructional
materials and low teaching salaries.
As Paulo Freire taught us, decades ago:
Teachers’ struggle for their rights and their dignity is an ethically critical component of their practice.
It is not extraneous but inherent to the teaching practice (...) The question that rises is not giving up
fighting, but society’s acknowledging this fight as historically legitimate also in what concerns new
ways and modes of fighting. (FREIRE,1996:74).
4. PRACTICUM AT DISTANCE COURSES
When distance education was implemented in Brazil, after LDB was enacted,6
some idealistic apologists argued that
distance education was a virgin territory where a whole new education mode could be cultivated to free us from a vicious
educational system doomed to failure. Countering them, conservatives contended that true quality education could not
do without teacher-student face-to-face (F2F) interaction and all that distance education aimed at was cheaper, ‘shallow’
education not compatible with existing teacher education modes.
The past 15 years have proven both perspectives right to a certain extent. Quality education can spare F2F interaction, as
technology has brought physically distant individuals closer at synchronous encounters on the web – a major qualitative
advance in communication media. Still, we have not advanced towards innovation, as we tend to replicate in distance
education the same old F2F practices we were familiar with. In doing so, we replicated old practices – and problems.
6 National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (LDB), Law no. 9.394, of December 20 1996.

Our students’ still low performance indicators evidence that. So does the fact that teacher education schools attract mostly
students from the lower classes, because who else would be willing to get a higher education degree to earn the low
salaries paid to Brazilian teachers and put up with a daily feeling of failing students who can barely learn anything?
A little over 30 years ago, Darcy Ribeiro admonished that “the much debated educational crisis in Brazil has become an
educational process implemented on a never-ending basis. The fruits we will reap tomorrow will speak for themselves”
(Ribeiro, 1979). Tomorrow has come and we can see that Ribeiro was right. We have a precarious school and university
structure, and consequently, most “Young people do not believe good schooling is synonymous with good jobs” (Frigotto,
2009). Our ruling class has always been “highly able to design and implement social policies that meet their interests by
keeping the population hungry, stupid and ugly” (Ribeiro, 1979).
Assuming that the Brazilian State has supported such policies, our higher education institutions and teacher education
courses have been equally responsible for the educational crisis and student failure.
Teacher education courses, with reference to distance education, are little or no different at all from F2F education. To
achieve positive results, they require public infrastructure policies that are not implemented by the State and which result
in below-the-expectation student achievement.
Currently delivered teacher education courses perpetuate the chronic shortage of teachers – mainly in specific areas such as
Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics – as well as the chronic problem of low student achievement and knowledge acquisition.
It may be further argued that they have widened the gap and future generations will unfortunately pay a high price for that.
The frontiers conquered by distance education are a universe of possibilities towards doing it differently. However, it will
take new dynamics to overcome traditional models and to qualify teachers that go beyond teaching into making students
learn. The nature of the supervised practicum makes it the locus of this transformation.
As we consider the various distance education models, the challenge yet to be met by supervised practicum is the guidance
provided by the instructional staff, which tends to be even more precarious than in F2F environments because it is also
delivered by distance modes that make little use of all the digital communication media that are available to large urban
centers. Distance instructional guidance can only be viewed as an insurmountable obstacle in places where the endless
possibilities provided by digital media are not available.
It should be noted that out of large urban centers, a considerable portion of our population has poor access to broadband,
cable or optic fiber internet connection, and in these places, dialed connection is extremely expensive.
It becomes evident that public policies overlooked making internet access freely available to all schools around the country
– despite the legislation providing for Higher Education distance undergraduate courses to compulsorily have physical

facilities as a support base. In such locations, high speed access from a mobile phone network should be able to record videos
that would be sent to students and thus, implement a substantial transformation in the distance supervised practicum.
A key point remains – student-teachers cannot waste the valuable opportunity the practicum provides in schools whose
teaching practice is as outdated as 50 years! The applicable legislation provides for transformative actions within the
environment of the schools who offer supervised practicum aimed at collaborative assessment of school problems and
weaknesses, so that social and instructional projects can be developed to establish closer bonds with the community,
innovative methodologies can be experimented with, and teachers can be better qualified to use technology.
Said transformative actions should involve collaborative activities in partnering higher education institutions, mainstream
basic education schools and the community so that knowledge can be collaboratively constructed and shared – like a river
that overflows and fertilizers all its neighboring area.
Student-teachers cannot be expected to confidently implement innovative practices if they are not familiar with or have
not experienced innovative methodologies. If higher education institutions advocate interdisciplinarity but do not put that
into practice; if they argue for teachers to develop their students’ potentials but keep the practicum as passive observation
without actual practice or interaction with the school environment; if they systematically do not do what they preach,
all the theory that underpins their academic discourse becomes fiction and they eventually fail their primary function of
qualifying professionals that dare the school’s fate of failure.
Technology today allows sharing videos that foster forum discussion of the teaching practice and further systematic
reflection, thus generating the conditions for student-teachers to grasp a wider and deeper insight of the profession they
have chosen to embrace.
Likewise, a number of cohesive and consistent measures must be taken towards implementing an up-to-date instructional
materials database to be shared by teachers and students and which can be the springboard for a true community of
practice that will share experiences and knowledge and which will engage in collaborative projects.
The various barriers we face – violence at school, special needs students, behavior and learning problems, community
relations – may be overcome if addressed collaboratively with sound practices that go beyond rhetorics and are also
implemented at academic level.
As long as we remain chained to the past and disregard the lessons taught by Paulo Freire and Darcy Ribeiro’s warnings
we will continue to have bitterly low positions in international rankings and carry the burden of four own inertia. The
challenge of encouraging children and adolescents to learn and to overcome their adverse social conditions and build a
more promising future has to become a reality. However, a piece of chalk alone is not enough to meet this challenge.

BARATA-MOURA, J. (1977). Totalidade e contradição. Lisboa: Horizonte.
BRASIL. (2008) Governo Federal. Lei do Estágio, Lei nº 11.788, de 25 de setembro de 2008. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília,
DF, 26 Sept, 2008. Retrieved from <www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2007-2010/2008/lei/l11788.htm> in May 2014.
BRASIL. (1996) Governo Federal. Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional, Lei nº 9.394, de 20 de dezembro de 1996.
DiárioOficialdaUnião, Brasília, DF, 23 dez. 1996. Retrieved from <www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9394.htm> in May 2014.
BRASIL. (2002) Governo Federal. Ministério da Educação. Resolução CNE/CP nº 1, de 18 de fevereiro de 2002. Retrieved
from <http://portal.mec.gov.br/seesp/arquivos/pdf/res1_2.pdf> in May 2014.
CURY, C. R. J. A formação docente e a educação nacional. PUCMG. Retrieved from <http://portal.mec.gov.br/cne/arquivos/
pdf/conselheiro.pdf> in May 2014.
FREIRE, P. (1996). Pedagogia da autonomia: saberes necessários à prática educativa. São Paulo: Paz e Terra.
FRIGOTTO, G. (2009) Escola e trabalho numa perspectiva histórica. Sísifo: Revista de Ciências da Educação, n. 9, pp. 129-
136, 2009. Lisboa: Universidade de Lisboa. Retrieved from <http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3044861>
in May 2014.
MORAES, M. C. & TORRE, S. (2004) Sentipensar: fundamentos e estratégias para reencantar a educação. Petrópolis: Vozes.
PIMENTA, S. G. & LIMA, M. S. L. (2008) Estágio e docência. (3rd. ed.) São Paulo: Cortez.
RIBEIRO, D. (2014). Sobre o óbvio: ensaios insólitos. Rio de Janeiro: Batel, 2011. [Ed. Orig. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1979]. Retrieved
from www.4shared.com/document/RLgjMReY/RIBEIRO_Darcy_-_Sobre_o_Obvio_.html in May 2014.

Tutoring FGV Online: the search for excellence
in tutors’ profile
Nayane Caldeira
Rebecca Villagrán Reimão Mello Seoane
Rebecca Villagrán Seoane
Master’s candidate in University Management and Policies for Mercosul at Universidade Nacional de Lomas de Zamorra –
UNLZ. Ms Seoane holds an MBA in People Management from Getulio Vargas Foundation – FGV – (2010) and a bachelor’s
degree in Languages (Portuguese and Latin) from Rio de Janeiro State University – Uerj – (2006). She has been with FGV
Online Program since 2006 where she now holds the position of tutor coordinator.
Nayane Caldeira
MSc in Technology from Cefet-RJ, specialist degree in Teacher and Student Advice from Candido Mendes University and
specialist degree in DE Planning, Implementation and Management from Federal Fluminense University. Ms Caldeira holds
a BEd in Pedagogy from Rio de Janeiro State University – Uerj – and has worked with distance education since 2007. She is
currently assistant teacher and tutor coordinator with Getulio Vargas foundation – FGV.
Abstract
This paper explores the critical role played by tutors in what concerns the excellence of distance education. It also discusses
the directives set by the Brazilian Ministry of Education – the Higher Distance Education Quality Benchmarks (Referenciais
de Qualidade para a Educação Superior a Distância) which were the baseline for FGV Online Program’s ‘ideal’ tutor profile
and their influence in designing a set of expected competences that are thoughtfully considered throughout the tutor
selection and training process. Such strictly-set competences remain the goal of tutor performance thereof.
Keywords: distance education; tutor training; quality benchmarks.
1. INTRODUCTION
Distance education (DE) differs from face-to-face (F2F) education in particular ways. As those directly involved in the
former are physically apart, interaction is facilitated by various technologies that entail efficient design and use of teaching
practices, instructional materials and evaluation instruments.

As we review best management practices of online DE programs in particular, two features stand out as being essential
for the success of such programs. Firstly, the quality components of Learning Management Spaces (LMS), which should
foster collaboration through synchronous (real time) interaction, like chats, as well as through asynchronous activities,
like forum discussions.
The second element to be highlighted is proactive tutoring featuring mastery of content knowledge, instructional tools
and methodologies of the given program. Tutors must follow-up on students on a regular basis while they are aware of
the difficulties students experience; they must answer students’ questions and motivate them to construct knowledge and
share their experiences.
Succeeding in achieving only one of the above mentioned objectives is not enough to achieve the desired DE program
quality, just as the LMS is not able to provide state of the art tools if there is not enough investment.
This article discusses the FGV Online tutoring process and builds the case that teaching practice is the major feature for
learning excellence, as tutor-student interaction is a critical element of this process.
2. THE SEARCH FOR EXCELLENCE IN DE
In recent years, the search for DE courses has increased significantly, nearing six million students in 2012 (ABED, 2013). DE
undergraduate students stand for 16% of these figures (INEP, 2013) as these students are given the opportunity to get a
degree they would not be able to in regular F2F programs.
So that the increasing number of DE courses would not compromise the quality expected of such programs, the Brazilian
Ministry of Education (MEC) designed the document entitled ReferenciaisdeQualidadeparaaEducaçãoSuperioraDistância
(Higher Distance Education Quality Benchmarks). Although this document does not have force of Law, it was designed to
“curb lowering quality standards and indiscriminate offer that would not conform to basic quality requirements for distance
education courses.” (BRASIL, 2007:2).
This document highlights that the term ‘education’ should fundamentally stand for the delivery of instruction, whereas
‘distance’ should refer to program organization. Thus, quality must be perceived as an inherent priority of the educational
process – even before the instructional mode. Learners are at the heart of the educational process and teacher-learner
interaction is one of the pillars of DE programs. Belloni (2009:82) compares classroom dynamics to that of a play, where
teachers and students are actors of the educational process:
“[...] we may say that teachers will no longer enjoy the pleasure of a leading role as playwrights and
play directors. They should be aware that they are no longer at center stage but rather make way to
other actors – the students – who will then play the leading roles in a play the teacher might even
direct, but which is then written by several authors.” (BELLONI, 2009:82)

From a certain perspective, the Quality Benchmarks do not apply solely to DE, as education no longer sets clearly defined
lines between F2F and DE instruction. This becomes evident as several F2F courses make use of DE tools to supplement
their students’ academic qualification and thus provide evidence that F2F education can benefit from DE technologies and
methodologies to enhance F2F classroom practices (ANDRADE & PEREIRA, 2012).
The Quality Benchmarks discuss interaction as critical and imperative, and as important as learner autonomy. For MEC, learner
autonomy does not dispose of or compete with interaction – as we read through the document, the concept of learner
autonomy in DE stems from the institution’s ability to provide learners with all the instructional support able to promote
their development within a given field of knowledge. This support should comprise all the technology and quality-related
apparatus that enhance student-tutor and peer interaction so as to ensure learners’ holistic development – with quality.
Student-tutor and peer interaction are critical in promoting discussions about the content being dealt with, clarifying and
answering questions and experience sharing. However, as those involved do not share the same space and time, special care
must be taken to enhance communication. Tori (2010:61) claims that “the more students and teachers communicate, the
shorter the transactional gap”. According to Moore (2002:2),
[the] student-teacher gap affects dramatically both teaching and learning. This gap generates
a psychological and communicational distance to be filled so as to prevent misunderstandings
between the teacher and the students. This psychological and communicational gap is what we call
a transactional gap. (MOORE, 2002:2)
Shortening or filling in the transactional gap is a constant challenge for DE tutors. Salvucci, Lisboa & Mendes (2012:54)
add that “the new online teaching mode must also be considered, as the new working conditions that are generated require
from tutors a new methodology that is able to assess new contradicting and questioning forces”.
In what concerns the functions performed by tutors, it should be noted that two lines of action are outlined for DE: active
tutoring and proactive tutoring. Although no judgment of value is meant – as each line of action aims at different goals
and therefore, sets clearly defined and diverse tutor functions – it is worth noting that MEC’s Quality Benchmarks lead
institutions to focus on developing proactive tutoring. Reactive tutoring, in general, is associated to self-instructional
programs that aim to qualify students in a specific area of a given field of study, and are, as such, more advisable for
corporate education.
A reactive tutor, within a reactive tutoring mode, can follow up on a larger number of students than a proactive tutor, since
the former’s role is generally limited to answering students’ questions about content knowledge. A proactive tutor, however,
must dedicate more time to each individual student and go beyond answering questions to setting a more collaborative and
higher quality learning environment. Levy (1999:173) argues that

[in] new ‘virtual environments’, teachers and students share resources and data available to them.
Teachers learn alongside students as they continuously update their ‘academic’ knowledge as their
teaching/learning competences. (...) The teacher’s role is no longer limited to providing knowledge,
but evolves into the competence to encourage and motive learning and reasoning.” (Levy, 1999:173)
Tutors, then, become responsible for mediating the teaching-learning process and for promoting collective construction
of knowledge. The tutor becomes a counselor who engages students in learning; the facilitator of the content-learner
relationship, the mediator of discussion, and an advisor by clarifying doubts and bridging theory to practice. Last but not
least, a well-qualified tutor can positively affect the worrisome student drop-out.
Still according to the document, the tutor’s mastery of content knowledge is as much a requisite as “… dynamic teaching
practices, a global and critical view and the ability to engage students in seeking the knowledge and the abilities to use
new communication and information technologies.” (BRASIL, 2007:22). The same can be said to apply to F2F instruction.
However, teaching practices that are used in the F2F classroom can not be reproduced in the eLearning environment
because although a tutor’s knowledge and abilities are very similar to a F2F teacher’s, their attitude is quite different. DE is
more flexible regarding time and space, but it requires much more tutor dedication. A good F2F teacher is not necessarily
a good DE tutor. According to Cavalcante Filho, Sales & Alves (2012),
[the] required DE tutor competences – whether a tutor-trainer, a tutor or a materials designer
– diverge from the competences developed by F2F practitioners because our culture privileges
F2F education. A new mindset, therefore, is required for designing and implementing DE learning
processes.” (CAVALCANTE FILHO, SALES & ALVES, 2012:09)
In addition to some features that emerge from this assumption, like technology skills, a more subjective aspect tackles
the practitioner’s ability to conduct quality mediation and make optimal use of virtual spaces. That is why the referred
document views tutor training as a requisite for institutions that offer DE programs and advises that such training to tackle
not only mastery of content knowledge but also of DE fundamentals and of the tutoring mode (BRASIL, 2007).
There is currently no consensus as to the role played by DE tutors – and neither about the very use of the term ‘tutor’.
They can be called mediators, mentors or tutors and still perform the very same functions. That is why investing in tutors’
qualification is of major importance, irrespective of how complex or strict tutors’ functions may vary from one institution
to another. The stricter the selection and training process, the better the performance to be expected from tutors.

3. FGV ONLINE TUTORS
FGV Online – Getulio Vargas Foundation Distance Education Program – trains tutors to teach refresher and development
programs, undergraduate and specialization programs and comprises a thoughtful selection and qualification process,
strict evaluation of novice tutors and continuous development of all the Program tutors. FGV Online Coordinators believe
this thorough process is critical for achieving the desired course excellence.
The requisite of mastery of content knowledge leads to selecting expert practitioners who hold a Master’s or a PhD Degree
in the field of knowledge they desire to teach. The applicants must be currently working in their field of expertise, as
we believe the relationship between theory and practice can benefit teaching practice. Therefore, the selection process
complies with the Quality Benchmarks in what refers to content knowledge proficiency.
The 45-hour qualification program aims to provide practitioners with a full grasp of DE fundamentals, of the functions
they will perform and of other possible functions with FGV Online, as well as with the LMS used by the Program. The three-
month program also comprises getting acquainted with the various levels of classroom practice – instructional, social and
managerial – and bridging theory to practice, thus allowing tutors-to-be to experience the environment in which they will
teach in both roles – as a student and as a tutor.
By reproducing tutors’ daily chores the program aims to equip tutors with the tools they need to carry out their regular and
complex daily tasks and develop into our ‘ideal’ profile. Strictness is evidenced by a 50% failure and drop-out rate which
has been stable since 2008.
Qualification is not complete until novice tutors move onto the practicum and deploy the knowledge and skills they have
developed (mastery of content-knowledge, of FGV Online model, classroom activities and dynamics and the valuation
process). Tutors’ fit to the LMS is also assessed during observation regarding their netiquette and ethical posture. Practicum
unfolds along two tutoring experiences when novice tutors are monitored by a mentor – an experienced FGV Online tutor
who is qualified for mentoring. Only after this whole process is completed is a tutor approved to join FGV Online tutor staff.
Continuous evaluation is essential for FGV Online Coordinators – a team of educators – to improve the tutors’ overall
teaching quality. All novice tutors are carefully evaluated by the Program Coordinators and also by the DE students who
took that given course. Coordinators’ evaluation is based on a set of criteria such as timely activity delivery, classroom
organization, quality of the communication with students, encouragement to student participation, quality of guidance
provided to activities, theoretical support provided to discussions and activity feedback. Students evaluate tutors regarding
their mastery of content knowledge, feedback timeliness, rapport with the whole class, support and encouragement to
activity solution, discussion and critical reflection.
Coordinators also encourage tutors to pursue continued education – and improve their teaching practice – by providing
them with scholarships to other courses offered by the institution.

FGV Online Coordinators also aim to assess novice tutors’ efforts to use the critical competences developed during training
and qualification, as per MEC’s Quality Benchmarks discussed above – dynamic classroom practices, critical and global view,
ability to encourage students’ search for knowledge and use of new communication and information technologies.
According to Dicionário Houaiss, ‘dynamic’ [classroom practices], one of the required competences as per MEC’s Quality
Benchmarks, means “energetic, active, diligent”. Whether in a F2F or in a virtual classroom, teachers must show how
motivated they are to perform by motivating learners’ interest in the content being dealt with. Several attitudes and actions
can show how ‘dynamic’ a tutor is: how communications are worded, the type of questions put forward for discussion and
how timely response is provided to students. In this respect, Campos, Roque & Amaral (2007) state that
[...] tutors’ dynamic teaching practice evidences their attitude towards students and instructional
resources when they place themselves as an integral course component and the subject responsible
for learning and communication throughout the course. It is the very nature of this interaction that
also makes tutors essential for the evaluation process when they contextualize every learner and
their performance. (CAMPOS, ROQUE & AMARAL, 2007:41)
Regarding tutors’ critical and global view, this competence is essential for enabling students to grasp the knowledge that
is constructed throughout the course from a critical, inquisitive perspective rather than being only passive recipients of
knowledge. Tutors’ critical view of knowledge is evidenced when they are able to make students put theory into practice,
share and bridge their experiences to theory, and forward other views to given theory. Freire (1996:31) also discusses
this competence:
[...] raising the bar from naiveness to critical thinking is not an automatic process but rather one of
the purposes of progressive educational practices – developing critical, non-conformist, untamed
inquisitiveness. Inquisitiveness allows us to counter-argue “irrational” view is that result from or are
produced by too much “rational thinking” that features our highly technologized times.” (FREIRE,
1996, p. 31)
The ability to encourage knowledge search, also advised by the Quality Benchmarks as essential for tutors, is directly
related to DE learner-centered approach, in which learners are active agents of the knowledge construction process. Freire
(1996:50) claims that “teaching requires being aware that it is a life-long learning process”, constantly seeking development
– for both learners and teachers. FGV Online tutors encourage learners to bring their own contribution to the classroom and
to relate their own experiences to what they are learning. Tutors and students share knowledge and also learning to learn.
Not less important, being able to use advanced technology is discussed by the Quality Benchmarks as fundamental for
tutors. By making best use of available tools, they can narrow gaps between students and content knowledge and mitigate
impacts caused by non-F2F learning processes.

4. CONCLUSION
The role played by tutors in Distance Education is the distinctive quality feature in this educational mode, since only
through interaction can both tutors and students construct knowledge collaboratively as they share experiences and bridge
theory to practice.
In compliance with the Higher Distance Education Quality Benchmarks established by the Ministry of Education, FGV Online
Program developed a tutorship model aimed at excellence that starts off with a thoughtfully conducted tutor selection
and training process. This model presupposes mastery of content knowledge, of DE Fundamentals and of the institution’s
Learning Management Space technology.
By conducting a continuous student and tutor evaluation process, the Program Coordinators are able to assess the
deployment of the target competences that have been established in compliance with the above mentioned Quality
Benchmarks. Constant dialogue with tutors also allows Coordinators to further the practitioners’ development.
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do Brasil.
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Superior a Distância. Brasília: MEC-SEED.
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Paulo: Senac.

Unexpected difficulties in first tutoring sessions:
a view of mentoring
Neila Rockenbach Xavier
Master’s degree in Business Administration and MBA in Marketing and Business Management plus a BA degree in Law.
Professional experience in banking, business and teaching areas. Currently, she works as a teacher-tutor at FGV Online and
at Post ADM of the FGV Management Network, in addition to serving as a mentor at FGV Online.
Débora Maria Lautenschläger Piccoli Guimarães
Master’s degree in Business Administration – International Business – from the University of East London. Graduate degree
in Business Administration and BA in Engineering with teacher training in Mathematics. Professional experience, both
domestic and overseas, in several areas, such as technical, commercial, training, and in recent years in people management.
Currently, she works as a teacher-tutor at FGV Online and as an executive coach.
Abstract
Tutoring is one of the most tangible elements in the learning process undertaken by distance education institutions. It is
required from the tutor commitment, organization, specific technical knowledge of the guidelines and internal processes.
The dominance of these tools represents a delivery of distinctive value to the institution, and the tutor is an active part of
the students’ knowledge acquisition. However problems in the conduction of tutorship may compromise the quality of the
process and student learning.
Keywords: mentoring; learning process; problematic tutoring.
1. INTRODUCTION
Distance education is not exactly a new form of learning, but with the onset of the knowledge era – specifically the
advent of the internet and its socialization – it is in continuous development, effectively breaking geographical and cultural
barriers, and enabling access to programs and schools found in many places all over the world and gathered in a common
area – the internet.
This type of education has become a significant element in the continuous improvement process of workers in the labor
market, presenting an important and convenient feature related to the geographical situation of students and the school as
well as to the time available to study once there is no need to be physically present in the classroom at predefined schedules

nor to have a standardized study routine. Distance education processes conducted through the internet are in increasingly
high demand, requiring that institutions adopt continuous improvement of such processes and make investments in
workforce training in order to ensure the delivery of service excellence with high added value to their students.
In order to achieve success when training students in all available courses, it is necessary the design of processes combining
the needs and interests of the target audience with institutional values and goal. Thus, not only the necessary pre-action
procedures will be established but the role of each agent involved in the learning process, especially the teacher-tutor who
is a tangible element of the learning process as well as the visible link between the institution and the student.
The teacher-tutor needs to undergo specific courses and training programs in order to properly carry out his activities
related to the teaching practice. Such training may be conducted within the institution thus allowing a more consistent
perception of the institutional values and philosophy through the sharing of knowledge and experience between the
newcomer and those disseminating the guidelines, which provides a deeper immersion in the organizational culture.
In this qualification process, mentoring would constitute a tool to be used as a complement and supplement in the
qualification process of those new professionals. The presence of the mentor accompanying the first tutoring practice
of his mentee is justified by the need not only to end the primary stage of organizational learning but also, and above all,
to enable the tutor to fully understand the organizational environment and the perspectives of professionals providing
services to the organization.
Unlike the coaching process, which is destined to achieve goals for a particular purpose and the counseling process, where
there is a form of guidance on the steps to be followed, mentoring is a style of learning and, in order to be successful,
personal communication shall be enhanced. Mentor and mentee have distinct mental programming as they come from
different cultural environments. Thus, it is healthful to comply with all stages of intercultural communication enabling a
dialogue to take place between the parties in order to achieve the desired results. According to Hofstede (1991, p. 266):
Awareness is the starting point: the recognition that, because of the way I was raised, I present
a certain mindset and other people, who are raised in different environments, have a different
mindset, for equally valid reasons [...]. To engage effectively with other cultures it is necessary
to learn about them [...]. Even if we do not share the same values, we must – at least – make an
effort to intellectually understand how they differ from ours. Skills are the result of awareness and
knowledge plus practice.
Mentoring, established as the last step of tutors’ qualification program, usually occurs when they are assigned for the first
practice. A mentor, indicated by the pedagogical coordination and selected due to his tutorial experience and attributes
within the institution, will follow the novice tutor during his first class, and will have unrestricted access to all environments
of the classroom. Mentor and mentee will also have a private environment for direct contact, where they will be able to talk

freely and the mentor can post his feedback, assist the tutor on all his difficulties and provide emotional support for tutors
experiencing anxiety – which is natural for new situations – minimizing his insecurity to be leading a class on his own for
the first time.
This work, however, mainly concentrates in the analysis of situations considered as problematic tutoring from the mentor’s
perspective, where tutors in their first tutoring practice present a set of unexpected problems while performing their duties.
It should be noted that the term problematic tutoring was coined by the authors and used to designate tutoring that fails to
comply with institutional guidelines. The mentor, with full knowledge of the working tools, processes and systems as well as
a deep understanding of the organizational guidelines, values and culture, has the ability to analyze the proper performance
of the tutor and the needs of the student and the institution.
Accordingly, we will provide an analysis, throughout the text, of some serious problems presented by tutors during their
first tutoring experiences. Such problems affect not only the tutors’ performance but also their students’ and occur even
when tutors have been properly trained, received theoretical training and participated in simulation of tutoring practices,
based on institutional guidelines and developed in the same environment in which they would work.
2. DEVELOPMENT
Many distance education learning processes consider tutoring their main element of tangibility. The tutor is the main link
between the institution and the student and, above all, represents the primary support to desired learning outcomes. The
introductory text of the Tutoring Handbook by FGV Online - an institution that places the tutor in the leadership of the learning
process = endorses this view and points out the necessary characteristics for a tutor to achieve the institutional goals:
[...] the quality of the distance education depends in large part on the excellence of tutoring. In
practice, this excellence is the result of mastering the subject content and activities, the ability to
organize and guide the process of teaching and learning, pedagogical and technical use of tools
which stimulates the subject, the quality of relationships built with the students and the Tutoring
Coordination (2010, p. 4).
The skills required to be a tutor - occasionally different from those required from a face-to-face teacher, mainly due to the
nature of the environment in which the learning process develops – are observed along the tutorial experience, which begins
with the arrival of the tutor in the institutional learning environment when he participates of the training course on tutorial
techniques and guidelines, as well as the continuous and systematic monitoring of his performance during tutoring practices.
The performance indicators are measured by students, pedagogical coordination, technological processes and mentoring
(when provided). Based on such indicators, notes and reports are then issued allowing a comprehensive assessment of the
tutor, considering specific knowledge in his field of action, the operation of processes and his professional attitude.

2.1 Qualification process for tutors
During the new tutor’s qualification process, he is trained at the same place – learning environment – where he will carry out
his functions. This process allows a full acquisition of knowledge as the tutor will be in contact with the two dimensions of
learning: tacit and explicit (LONGO, 2010). By means of explicit knowledge, the tutor will have contact with the institutional
guidelines and the tools of the learning process. Tacitly, he will be witnessing the tutor of his qualification process, who will
demonstrate, through his practice, the application of the processes, the culture and values of the institution, besides the
required professional attitude.
The student-applicant – term created by the authors to designate the student enrolled in the tutoring qualification course
who aspires to be a tutor at an educational institution – after passing the qualification process may be accompanied by a
mentor in his first experience in the classroom. In this case, the role of the mentor is to verify the proper implementation
of tutoring functions performed by the new tutor throughout the subject, providing support when necessary and assisting
him in circumstances still not fully compliant. The presence of the mentor also appeases initial anxieties during this first
experience, representing a crucial support to his insecurity and anxiety towards a new situation.
During the first episodes, it is common for the tutor to have doubts about the proper performance of his duties, the positive
reception of students and the suitable handling of the class, that is, his real contribution to the learning process. Usually, a
high degree of anxiety lingers for the first two weeks of the course, especially in classes where there is real-time contact
with students through chats, decreasing the intensity when initial tasks are finally properly conducted. The comfort and
security provided by the mentor’s feedback and the interaction with the students contribute to the stability and ensures the
tutor he is acting accordingly to his training as a tutor.
2.2 Mentoring – tool of the qualification process
Mentoring, a tool that may be inserted into tutors training process refers to – according to Araújo (2012) – a personal
developmental relationship in which a person – the more experienced – promotes the evolution and development of the
other – the less experienced. The objective is to encourage and inspire the mentee, that is, the learner or pupil, to put into
practice his potential, transmitting know-how. Along the same lines, Vergara (2012) defines mentoring as a relationship
of support and assistance, in which the most knowledgeable person helps the beginner in the development of his career
within the organization.
Reflections arising from this process will promote changes in the professional practice and life of the mentee and the mentor,
once the latter also learns with the relationship, reflecting on his knowledge and organizational experience. Therefore,
mentoring disseminates knowledge, improves quality of life and balances the desires of the mentee and the mentor with
the goals of the institution. Moreover, within the institution, mentoring may be intentional, since there is the organizational

purpose of promoting changes in its human capital, investing in the emotional and intellectual development of labor force,
since such an environment develops as people flourish together (VERGARA, 2012).
We may list the following as functions of mentoring (FGV ONLINE, 2010a): technically empower and transmit experience
and knowledge; provide continuous support and assistance to the new tutor with the institutional principles as the base;
ensure the quality of the learning process; contribute to establish the first commitment relationship in the tutor. In this
process, the mentor must, above all, establish a relationship of trust and provide security to his mentee because, during his
first experiences, everyday there is a new challenge, once he is not yet fully aware of the consequences of his daily actions
in the learning process he is leading. The mentor needs to look at his mentee as a colleague who is taking his first steps in
search of a complete and distinctive learning, and thus he should show where the information is and how the desired result
may be achieved. On the other hand, he should not perform the work of his mentee, and that means not making him too
dependent or unable to conduct himself without listening to his advice.
The relationship should be collaborative: the mentor giving emotional and technical support, and the mentee absorbing
it in order to shape his own way of acting. Encouraging the autonomy of the mentee will enable him to play according
to the guidelines and rules of the game with his own efforts and singularities, and above all, favors the establishment of
intrapersonal trust, leading the mentee to conduct his future classes more appropriately. According to Stoltzfus (2008),
mentoring should encourage ability for autonomy and leadership, instigating skills and leading the mentee to take ownership
of his actions.
The process of mentoring promotes changes in the professional practice of the mentee; consequently, it is essential that
the relationship between him and his mentor be of trust and respect. In order to promote the retention of knowledge by
the mentee, the mentor should challenge him to achieve a standard of excellence; he should encourage him to reflect on
the needs of the institution to successfully face the challenges with quality, productivity and competitiveness, and should
encourage him to be proud of his role (VERGARA, 2012). Also according to the author, the mentor needs to understand,
in an self-awareness exercise, his possibilities and limitations; his personal values, prejudices, stereotypes and worldview;
his degree of sensitivity and empathy and his willingness to unconditionally relate to the other, considering that everyone,
without distinction, have strengths and weaknesses, levels of possibilities and limitations.
The mentor, by periodically reviewing the work of his mentee, shall provide him with constructive feedback in order to
overcome weaknesses and encourage continuous improvement. Alexander (2012, p.1) recommends:
Feedback aims to contribute to the development of professionals, making them aware that there
are points to be improved, suggesting ways of how to reach that. It is also regarded as a moment
of explanation of something positive, that is, it is an opportunity to emphasize the differential
feature of a certain employee making him aware of such characteristics, once this is the source
of motivation.

The new tutor, in turn, must understand that he should work autonomously and that he is the manager of his class. Therefore,
discipline, organization and professionalism are attitudes sought by the institution and considered in the evaluation to
determine his future as a tutor. The effectiveness of mentoring requires the observance of certain behaviors on the part
of the mentor and the mentee. It is required for the mentee to have psychological and spiritual availability for learning;
feel less threatened and more secure with the mentor’s monitoring; to understand that, as a beginner, he is unable to cope
alone with the demands of the environment; that he needs to learn how to have a broader view of the institution and the
awareness that internal knowledge is collectively constructed (VERGARA, 2012).
However, sometimes the scenario found by the mentor at first tutoring practices is different from expected. There are cases
where tutors have plenty of difficulties in dealing with the operation of the workplace, the execution of tutorial tasks and
the understanding of how to process the proper dialogical relationship in the classroom. Such scenario makes the mentor
question himself what, effectively, these tutors have learned during training and about his own professional liability.

Thissituationiscriticalnotonlybecauseanydeficiencyintheconductionoftutorialpracticesaffectsthetutor’sperformance,
compromising his approval by the mentor and the pedagogical coordination, but also because it implies that the offered
service is below expected, compromising student learning and reflecting negatively on the image of the institution.
2.3 Common negative points in problematic tutoring
It is disquieting that there are large discrepancies between what was learned in training and what the tutor presents when
conducting his first tutoring. During training, the information is formally passed through texts, content discussion in
forums and written assignments, as well as through simulation of tutorial practices and, tacitly, by the passive experience
of the student-applicant in the same learning systematic that he will work in the future. This tacit learning promoted by his
status as a student is a significant element in his qualification as a tutor. Nonaka and Takeushi comment on this experience:
An individual can acquire tacit knowledge directly from others without using language. Apprentices
work with their teachers and learn their craft not through language, but through observation,
imitation and practice [...] practical training basically uses the same principle. The key to acquiring
tacit knowledge is experience (1997, p. 69).
Accordingly, the recurring problems in problematic tutoring presented below are concerns of mentors who have their own
performances hampered, because they need to play the role of teachers, training again operational tasks and functions
which should have been incorporated by the tutor once he was previously qualified for such tasks and has, at his disposal,
internal documents, system manuals and tutorials to study and for previous consultation.
Next, common problems found in mentoring are exposed. It is noted, however, that these situations may occur isolated in
the first subject of a new tutor without compromising his or the class performance – some of them are even expected often

due to the limitations of the training process. The critical point occurs when all the problems are observed together in the
same tutoring practice, denoting that the tutor is totally unprepared to perform his duties and play the role of facilitator
to the student learning.
2.3.1 Classroom organization
The problem regarding classroom organization was the following:
• virtual learning environment (VLE) – difficulties in making the work environment operational and lack of knowledge
about the features of the platform. These problems not only affect the development of tutoring tasks but also
prevent the tutor to assist students in browsing the system.
2.3.2 Messages formatting
Problems in relation to message formatting were the following:
• visual pollution – excess of colors, emoticons and information in a single message, compromising the quality and
above all, shifting attention from content;
• lack of standardized messages – too many types of fonts, colors, structure of paragraphs. The standardization and
customization of messages characterize the tutor for the class, individualizing and calling for the immediate visual
attention in discussion forums;
• non-compliance with basic rules of web etiquette – for example, inadequate distribution of paragraphs (compressed
text) and prominent features (color, bold, italic, underline, uppercase), as well as the use of whole paragraphs
written in capital letters or in red;
• lack of knowledge about the role of the administrator in the classroom – non use or poor use of available system
resources to manage the VLE.
2.3.3 Written assignments presented by students
The problem regarding written assignments presented by students was:
• lack of knowledge about the objectives and operation of written assignments that students must submit to
the tutor or colleagues – information related to each type of activity are expressed in detail in the course
handbook and teacher’s manual. It is clear, however, that there are tutors who do not read these guidelines, in
addition to having difficulties in interpreting the content to be worked by the student and the procedures for
its implementation, thus transmitting wrong guidelines or partial information, which will affect the quality of
work submitted by the students.

2.3.4 Assessing assignments
Problems in relation to assessing assignments were:
• difficulty in understanding what should be considered in the assessment of tasks – this problem occurs not only
because of the lack of knowledge on evaluation criteria but also by a lack of understanding over the objectives of
the activity proposed by the teacher-author, limiting justifications to mere compliments without any comments
about the content developed by the student or emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of the work presented;
• some uneasiness to assess the real quality of the work submitted by the student – the assumption that a low score
is a contributor to increase drop out rates and fear of being blamed or criticized for this situation. This issue notably
shows the lack of knowledge about the pedagogical objectives of the institution’s assessment process;
• failure to observe cases of plagiarism – lack of knowledge about the major characteristics of this illegal action
committed by students, with copyright infringement or, once again, the belief that strictness in assessing
assignments would influence students drop out. The lack of knowledge about internet search tools, such as Google,
or the use of systems, such as Ephorus, to detect plagiarism are good examples;
• difficulty with the operation of the system to consolidate the grades – lack of knowledge about the places where
to register submission of activities and how to process the grades;
• no previous preparation of personal controls to monitor the student throughout the course – difficulty in
performing qualitative assessment of the student performance, relying only on the attendance report provided by
the system, which demonstrates that the tutor chooses quantity over quality.
2.3.5 Promoting content discussion
Problems found in relation to promoting content discussion were:
• dialogical positioning – lack of understanding of how to promote debates or to interact during discussions.
No proposal of issues to be discussed by students; reflections bringing theory closer to the real world are not
considered, besides answers are not directly given to each student as they expose their views or, when given,
sometimes no information or knowledge is aggregated, merely presenting the student’s summary or expressing
appreciation for his participation;
• forum absenteeism – access to the VLE without messages, or even absence for over 24 hours to the platform.
Difficulties in understanding what characterizes attendance to the learning environment and the quality of
interventions. When there is no messages to be commented, the tutor does not post any messages in the classroom,
keeping a utterly reactive posture by not encouraging the participation of students or proposing new topics to
enrich the discussion;
• low participation of students in discussions about content - limited attitude expecting the student to answer
(reactive behavior) or just sending a private message calling for participation (when it occurs). No monitoring of
the rate of responses to the initial question, not introducing new topics for debate when the initial proposal has
exhausted or presenting an unprofitable and uninviting discussion.

2.4 Other observed issues
2.4.1 Adaptation week – beginning of classes
Other observed issues were:
• misunderstanding the goals of the initial activities, which led to incorrect orientations, compromising the quality
of interaction as well as reflecting an inaccurate assessment of the individual participation of the student;
• lack of knowledge about the kind of class being tutored, students profiles and specific objectives of the subject;
• no previous reading of the course content and calendar, providing incorrect information on planned activities;
• lack of knowledge about the goals of scheduled online meetings or chats as well as the proper posture of the
tutor in the meeting rooms, and not addressing specific topics of each meeting, resulting in poor guidelines
and dynamics.
In some cases, such problems are accompanied by a bold attitude. Some tutors do not accept guidance and feedback from
mentors – they believe they master tools and knowledge of the processes. That makes it difficult to correct misconceptions
and puts a strain on the relationship between mentor and mentee, reflecting in poor quality of work in the classroom and
generating negative impact on the student learning.
Thelistdoesnotendhereandotherfactscanbeaddedbecauseeachtutoringandmentoring,althoughsetinapredetermined
process, has its own idiosyncrasies. Accordingly, there is no widespread occurrence of such behaviors among tutors; some
of the reported items may even be found in early tutoring and these might be considered normal once its prevalence
does not affect the overall quality of the tutoring. It is the attitude of the tutor and the way he works with the knowledge
acquired in the training course added to the guidelines provided by the mentor that will set the proper pace of tutoring and
will lead the tutor to effectively collaborate in the learning process of the student. Moreover, it is also up to the tutor to
let go of pride and seek help, because sometimes, despite of been aware that his knowledge is limited he does not look for
guidance and performs tasks in accordance with his will, even against institutional rules.
All the mentioned problems would be justifiable if the tutors were not properly trained prior to their designation to the
courses. Robust support material is also available to the tutor, such as subject handbook, access to the virtual library
resources, tutoring manual, tutorial of the system, mentoring, pedagogical coordination and technical support, all of them
capable of solving remaining and new questioning. Therefore, the presence of so many problems in a single tutoring not
only affects the technical evaluation of the tutor but also indicates that his skills as a professional does not meet the needs
of the institution, since the operation of the process requires individual specific skills and are only complemented by the
training program.

2.5 Considerations on problematic tutoring
The analysis of results of internal processes must verify if the institutional aspirations and goals are being properly
achieved and if actions taken ensure its sustainability. This measurement should be continuously carried out for a broader
understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the process, also understanding the motivation of the presented
performances in order to solve problems and grab opportunities. We must understand what elements impact the actions
and how they determine results, including not only measurement instruments but also events and people involved, their
motivation and intrinsic goals.
Thus, when analyzing the subjective element of the process, in our case (tutors under mentoring), not only the tangible
elements (such as the operation of the working tool) should be considered but also the individual goals of the tutor and
his posture as a committed and responsible professional. That way, it is possible to find justification for such contrasting
behavior between a regular and a problematic tutoring, since all tutors undergo the same preparation process and the same
institutional environmental condition.
We may consider some non-conclusive or definitive reasons to begin a deeper discussion on the subject and that might
influence improving the selection and qualification processes for new tutors:
• there are tutors who are unaware of the institution where they wish to work, who do not understand their goals,
values, the public it attends as well as the intended results of their processes;
• there are tutors concerned with adding the institution’s brand to his resume, however, without showing
professionalism while conducting their duties, relegating the functions at the institution to a lower category in
their daily schedule. This reflects the poor quality of interactions in the classroom, with students, in the lack of
debates and in the learning environment;
• there is the inability of some tutors to distinguish between people who merely encourages and a legitimate
motivator who guides and leads the student to the full path of knowledge, promoting exchange and representing
an effective part of the process as a main co-author. Such relational and proactive posture requires that the tutor
recognizes that student learning is directly related to his ability to learn (DEMO 1999) and properly conducting the
challenge of making the student learn (DEMO 2000);
• currently, the search for alternative sources of income is common in the job market, which makes distance education
a unique and convenient opportunity. However, sometimes the professional is not an educator, leader and learning
process organizer, and does not present the essential skills of a teacher;
• it is known that in his first tutorial experience, the new tutor may have personal difficulties, especially to assimilate
negative feedbacks and consequently absorb criticism as a formative element, which induces reflection. There may
be unrealistic expectations about the process where he belongs and also the assumption that the mentor is always
available to point out new ways and what to do. This expectation leads the tutor to reactively wait for instructions,
not realizing that the mentor is simply a partner on his side, and will not pull him through the conduction of his
professional development. The mentor guides and brings the organizational culture, but the tutor must be aware
that he should act proactively in the conduction of the subject.

The presence of these elements would bring to tutoring a character of ‘moonlight’, a job without much effort, dedication
and commitment, representing only some extra money to the tutor, not a career to be built and a commitment with an
appropriate provision of service to the student.
Issues similar to those presented in this work critically put the institution’s image in jeopardy because the delivery of a
low quality service affects the students as well as other potential clients. The professional treatment that the institution
employs to build its objectives and processes should be a basic requirement of service providers, especially those who are
directly related to final customers/students – the tutors.
3. CONCLUSION
The advantages of distance learning are increasingly being recognized and generating a demand for courses offered by
recognized educational institutions. However, in order to keep the quality of this process a real differential of the institution,
it is essential that all involved elements are perfectly synchronized, being tutoring one of them.
Mentoring at an organizational environment brings significant benefits for mentors, mentees, and especially for the process
of knowledge and corporate climate. It can be seen as an advantage for the mentor the improvement of his leadership and
people management skills, the expansion of his network and, without doubt, being reward and recognized by senior staff
and peers. On the other hand, the mentee will have the advantage of receiving honest and more informal feedback coming
from a more experienced and qualified professional, which will leverage the development of his new duties as well as raise
his confidence and self-assurance.
Mentoring – when properly employed within the organization – allows the development of individual skills based on
the organizational philosophy and culture, and, therefore, is a factor that directly impacts the competitiveness of the
professional and the institution, since it reinforces the quality of organizational learning.
A tutor – as a coauthor of the learning process which he leads – must demonstrate all the skills and competencies required
by the institution.
To this end, his commitment should be assessed not only during the stages of the training process but also from the
moment he enrolls in such training. Therefore, from the time the tutor is a student-applicant and in order to be well-
evaluated throughout his training process, it is essential that the teacher has deep knowledge of the institution and
understand exactly what it seeks concerning its professionals because many problematic tutoring present a pattern: the
lack of knowledge about the guidelines and working tools. The question the mentor asks about such observation is: what
subjective criteria were used to approve the student-candidate, since the formal criteria are directly related to the tasks
performed throughout the training course?

At this moment, it is convenient to analyze possible flaws in the approval of the student-applicant as well as the criteria
of selection. As the demand for teaching in distance education programs and for professionals of different fields of
activity has increased, it is necessary to examine – during the applicants’ selection process – personal goals that led the
applicant to become a tutor – it is also essential to understand the intrinsic motivations – and the presence of specific
skills needed for a teacher and leader of the learning process, and whether the qualification process is aligned with the
interests of the institution.
Improving inadequate aspects of the selection, training and evaluation processes of new tutors is positive for everyone;
mainly the students, who will not feel constrained regarding the quality of the course. Mentoring, in turn, will allow the
institution to pursue targeted quality indicators for its workforce and excellence of service, consequently promoting a
positive perception of its image and raising competitiveness.
ALEXANDRE, Antonio Luiz. (2011) A importância do feedback. RH.com.br, 28 jun. 2011. Disponível em: <www.rh.com.br/
Portal/Desempenho/Artigo/7257/a-importancia-do-feedback-.html>. Acesso em: 2 jun. 2014.
DEMO, Pedro. (1999) Educação e desenvolvimento. Campinas: Papirus.
______. (2000) Conhecer e aprender: sabedoria dos limites e desafios. Porto Alegre: Artmed.
FGV ONLINE (2010a). Manual de mentoria do FGV Online. Rio de Janeiro: FGV Online.
______. (2010b) Manual de tutoria do FGV Online. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getulio Vargas.
LONGO, Rosemary. (2010) Gestão do conhecimento. Rio de Janeiro: FGV Online.
MORIN, Edgar. (1994) Meus demônios. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil.
NONAKA, Ikujiro; TAKAUCHI, Hirotaka. (1997) Criação de conhecimento na empresa. Rio de Janeiro: Campus.
STOLTZFUS, T. (2008) Coaching questions: a coach’s guide to powerful asking skills. Virginia Beach: Pegasus Creative Arts.
VERGARA, S. (2012) Mentoria: tutorial. Rio de Janeiro: FGV Online.

Engaging interactions for eLearning:
25 ways to keep learners awake and intrigued
By B. J. Schone.
E-book (http://www.iadl.org.uk/res/forms/interactions_for_elearning.pdf)
Reviewed by Cristina Massari
One of the highest challenges for distance education teachers is to keep learners’ engagement and interest high. B. J. Schone,
Learning Technology senior expert with San Diego-based Qualcomm Incorporated, aims to provide distance education
tutors and teachers with interactive techniques and resources that intrigue and enhance learners’ engagement.
Schone’s book views interaction as a learning activity that presupposes the learner’s active engagement in solving a given
problem or scenario. He discusses various interaction modes, ranks them according to specific levels of interaction and
required knowledge, and challenges practitioners to choose the best fit for their learners.
The author argues for implementing relevant activities the trigger learners’ interest as a way to hold engagement in the
e-learning process:
“Too many eLearning courses are “page turners”, where the learner simply reads through pages
of bland text. Engaging interactions are necessary because they are more likely to keep learners
interested and mentally stimulated during learning experiences (p. 5).
Schone advises that “... it is important to use interaction when and where they are beneficial to the learning experience. If
an interaction does not fit well, do not use it.” (p. 6).
To define the levels of interaction, the author uses the definitions established by the US Department of Defense (DOD) and
relies on the white paper “eLearning: from level 1 to level 4 of interactivity: why choosing the appropriate interactivity level
is important”, by Mark Lange (Entelisys Technologies). The levels of interaction are passive interaction, limited interaction,
complex interaction and real-time interaction.
Next, the author outlines 25 different engaging interactions that may be used to design an online instructional program
and in a very instructive manner, arranges each one of them in order of increasing interactivity. Each interaction contains a
description, an example, the level of interaction and the most appropriate type of knowledge involved (factual, conceptual,
procedural and/or metacognitive knowledge. The outline ranges from simple interaction processes – using questions and
answers tests – through myth or fact challenges on to scavenger hunts that require website searching for information or
virtual labs.

ELearnig2.0interactionsarealsoexploredandtheauthoradvisestheuseoftechnologiesthatenhancelearners’collaboration
and knowledge building and sharing. Additional eLearning 2.0 references are finally provided.
Schone has also designed a blog to further the discussion proposed by his e-book: Engaging Interactions for eLearning,
available from http://engaginginteractions.com/.
Schone’s e-book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – Derivs 3.0 license.
B. J. Schone is the founding editor of the website http://elearningweekly.com and co-creator of the website www.
eLearningPulse.com.

August 2014 - Challenges for teacher qualification in distance education

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