EDUCATORS´ VIEWPOINT ON THE IMPORTANCE AND CRITERIA FOR PRINTED DIDACTIC MATERIAL FOR A DISTANCE EDUCATION PREPARATORY COURSE TO UNIVERSITY ADMISSION EXAMS
1 Universidade Estadual Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (BRAZIL)
2 Universidade Federal Fluminense (BRAZIL)
About this paper:
Appears in:
EDULEARN15 Proceedings
Publication year: 2015
Pages: 5463-5469
ISBN: 978-84-606-8243-1
ISSN: 2340-1117
Conference name: 7th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 6-8 July, 2015
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
Several factors can contribute to motivate students in the process of searching for information and learning, one of them is the didactic material. This material, when elaborated with quality is an important tool to reach the proposed objectives in this modality of education. Printed material still has its place among other technologies, once it can be suited to the many and varied educational needs and contexts. Despite the subjectivity implied in quality criteria, the knowledge of the educators’ concept on the importance of printed didactic material for the distance education modality and, even more, on the criteria adopted for its elaboration, is fundamental to help in the teaching/learning process. Based on such facts, the present research aimed to find out the point of view of educators from a distance education preparatory course to university admission exams on the importance of the printed didactic material and on the quality criteria used to prepare it. The research was carried out with 20 educators teaching in 2014 at Teorema, a preparatory course for university admission exams maintained by Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF), Campos dos Goytacazes-RJ, Brazil. It was an explanatory research using a questionary with multiple choice and discursive questions. The questionary answers (data) were analyzed on both qualitative and quantitative basis. Most educators (55%) are at least licentiate, so that it can be inferred that they are more acquainted with pedagogical practices and didactics than others. A hundred percent of the educators, when asked about the importance of the printed didactic material, considered it an important tool. It was observed that the educators are also attentive to some pedagogical concepts necessary for elaborating quality printed didactic material that allows students to study autonomously. Nevertheless, most educators do not know the dialogical language (for interactive acting), which is the most suitable one to be used in the material for distance education. Most educators state that they elaborate didactic materials articulated with pedagogical activities and explore bibliography, videography, and complementary audiography. Besides, 80% of the preparatory course educators interact among themselves to improve the material, suggesting that there is an endless search for quality printed didactic material. It can be concluded that most of the educators teaching at Teorema, in 2014, acknowledge the importance of the printed didactic material for students of distance education, although they do not know all the quality criteria that must be adopted on its elaboration. Thus, the training of educators must be mainly based on quality criteria to guarantee good student results at Teorema. It is worth emphasizing that, after the educators´ training at Teorema, new researches can be led to verify whether the action was positive or not.