A sala de aula digital sob a perspectiva dos sistemas complexos: uma abordagem qualitativa

Abstract

This research aims at investigating the digital classroom from the theoretical perspective of the complex systems, based on the investigation of the interactional flows which have occured among students from two simultaneous groups of the online disciplineTópicos especiais em prática de ensino abordagem comunicativa offered at UFMG as part of the undergraduation curriculum of the Letras / English course which took place in the year 2003 from April to August. The digital learning environment foccused under the perspective of the complex systems theory may be useful to the Applied Linguistics in the sense that it may contribute to the apprehension of the Technologies of Information and Communication (TIC) roles in the language teaching and learning process as well as broadening our comprehension on thechanges that such an insertion may represent for the culture of teaching and learning foreign languages. Data were colected through a number of instruments such as messages posted in electronic discussion lists and discussion forums, interviews with the teacher and students, teachers diary and field notes taken by the researcher. This variety of data collecting instruments has allowed an information triangulation with the objective of conducting a qualitative data analysis from the case study methodological perspective according to Johnson (1992). The interactional flows established in the two digital classrooms were described and analyzed under the complex systems view with the purpose of understanding the dynamics of those interactions and the possible pedagogical implications that factors such as feedback anddesign may have in the teaching and learning processes, and in the management of courses mediated by the TIC. The interactional flows analysis, together with the content analysis of the messages sent to the electronic discussion lists, contrasted with the interviews, with theresearchers field notes and with the teachers diary, indicate the confirmation of the initial hypothesis which stated that the flows of the interactions that have taken place in both digital learning environments, characterize them as complex systems. The two observed classroomshave shown hints of unpredictability, sensibility to initial conditions, interactivity, adaptability and dynamism and self-organization.These assertions reinsure Paivas (2002) Fractal Model of Acquisition (Modelo Fractal de Aquisição), which is based on the collaborative learning premise, in a dynamic, non-linear, unpredictable way. This perspective influences the teachers roles as an activity and learningenvironment designer as well as the manager of the students learning processes, making decisions on the necessary pedagogical interventions and the types of feedbacks are the most appropriate to each new learning situation to be faced by the teacher, concerning individualneeds as well as group needs and specific features of each group of students and of each student as an individual. As a conclusion, it is emphasized that considering the classroom under the complexsystems paradigm means to abandon the linear and sequential logic of cause and effect that has been adopted throughout the educational history to get affiliated to a notion of learning as a process that evolves in a fractal way (PAIVA, 2002), amplifying previous knowledges andacquiring new ones from interactions which are meaningful to the proposed learning objectives in the sense of overlapping the traditional pedagogical models and promoting learning based on the complexity of the interactions realized by the participants in their social sites.