Teacher Mediation in a Collaborative Learning Laboratory of Physics, a Virtual Environment for Teaching and Learning

Dante Alighieri Alves de Mello^1,2, Shirley Takeco Gobara³

¹Technological Axis of Information and Communication, Federal Institute of Mato Grosso do Sul, Aquidauana, Brazil.
²Graduate Program in Education, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Brazil.
³Institute of Physics, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Brazil.

DOI: 10.4236/ce.2014.520202                

Abstract

We know that physics is a difficult subject for many students to understand. From this observation, several studies have been performed to investigate the causes and possible solutions to this problem. Among the numerous existing lines of study, we find investigations on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Based on Vygotsky’s theory, we developed a Virtual Environment for Teaching and Learning (VETL) to foster interaction and collaborative participation among students, and between them and the teacher, to solve problems in physics. We seek to present in this paper how teacher mediations should be conducted in this environment in order to foster collaborative interactions and thus facilitate the internalization of scientific concepts by students. We found that students have an expectation as to the participation of the teacher in the environment, and as a consequence the teacher should seek to virtually interact with all groups, even those who have managed to solve the problem by themselves, at least to communicate to the students if they solved it correctly.

Keywords

Mediation, Virtual Environment for Teaching and Learning, Collaboration, Interaction, Zone of Proximal Development, Actual Development Level, Collaborative Learning Laboratory of Physics

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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