Analysis of the cognitive and autopoietic processes in a virtual learning environment

Abstract

The multimedia support in learning environments can be a facilitator

element for changes in the epistemological conceptions on the part of

educators and apprentices. This article consists in a case study. The corpus

of analysis is composed by the statements of an apprentice that interacted

in the virtual learning environment of a mandatory course in a Psychology

undergraduate program. Piaget’s theory of Equilibration and Maturana’s

Biology of Knowledge are the theories that support the analysis and that

give support to the construction of the cognitive and autopoietic indications.

The analysis shows how the subject interacts before the exchanges made

in the different scenarios of the virtual environment. The autopoietic and

cognitive indications show a process of learning supported by the interaction

with the other and by the interaction with the object of knowledge itself.

The subject’s contributions indicate a movement of authorship and construction of

knowledge, assuming a participative and responsible role in the exchanges

realized with the other apprentices.