The technological physical laboratory to achieve improvements in the quality of learning in epistemic terms

This work aims to identify teaching and learning practices in practical classes of Computer Network Technology courses, which promote the use of the Physical Laboratory (PL) as an epistemic tool to improve learning in epistemic terms. Content analysis of Multimodal Narrations (MN) of three classes by two teachers were used. An MN aggregates and organizes the data collected in the PL environment. Based on the results, we infer that the student and the teacher, under certain conditions, use the physical laboratory as an epistemic tool since the physical interactions prove its use and reuse. In addition, this study allows, in the context of work in the physical laboratory of networks, to identify that the orchestrations of mediation patterns adopted by the teacher influence the students' epistemic practices and the use of the laboratory as a tool to produce new knowledge. The following contributions are presented: (1) The quality of the students' epistemic practices is increased if, in the teacher's dynamics of mediation, the control of the students' action is reduced; (2) The orchestration of the teacher's mediation patterns is essential to achieve beneficial results in student learning with the use of artifacts from the physical laboratory of Computer Networks; (3) For the physical laboratory to become an epistemic tool, it is necessary that the mediation standards allow students to develop epistemic practices to a high or very high degree and there is a certain mediation orchestration.

Automated summary

This study aims to understand the teaching and learning practices in practical classes of Computer Network Technology courses by using the Physical Laboratory as an epistemic tool to enhance learning. The results show that under certain conditions, both students and teachers use the physical laboratory as an epistemic tool, as evidenced by the physical interactions. Additionally, the study finds that the mediation patterns adopted by teachers have an impact on students' epistemic practices and the use of the laboratory. The findings highlight the importance of reducing control over students' actions and orchestrating the mediation patterns to achieve beneficial results in student learning with the use of physical laboratory artifacts.