The Role of Tutor Teacher in Distance Learning in the Perception of Students and Tutors Themselve

Abstract

The tutor teacher is the main responsible for the pedagogical interaction, for the processes of orientation and motivation of the students in their academic activities. The present study aimed to compare social representations of students of Higher Education in the distance modality and of the tutors themselves about the tutoring function. 405 tutors and 585 university students in the distance education modality from different higher education institutions participated in the research, totaling a convenience sample of 990 respondents. These participants responded to the inductor term "tutor" for the free evocation of three words. With the support of the Iramuteq software, a prototypical analysis was carried out, which structures social representations in four distinct zones based on a matrix that combines the average order and the frequency of evocation of words. The results point to a positive perception of the figure of the tutor teacher, by both research groups, with a clear association of the role of tutors as a central function in the distance modality. Although there is a common core of representations between both groups surveyed, differences were also identified between them. While tutoring teachers focus on their academic role in the teaching-learning processes, students associate the role with support throughout the course. The findings of this study suggest an appreciation of the profession as a condition for improving the quality of distance undergraduate courses. The results are discussed in the light of the literature in the area and a proposal for an agenda for future studies on the subject is made.

Keywords: Distance education. University graduate. Social representations. Tutor.