Keyword: pedagogical practices

ABSTRACT: In deep northeast Brazil, pedagogical actions, educational practices, and socioemotional development are at a crossroad. The return to in-person classes after the COVID-19 pandemic was marked by reports of emotional crises, where cases of anxiety and depression prevailed among students. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the dynamic and creative process of pedagogical actions and perceived students’ socioemotional development with teachers working in Itabaiana, a small city 60 kilometers off the coast, in Sergipe state’s backlands. This is a region that has lived with social, economic, and political problems for centuries. The methodology was qualitative and divided into two stages. The first stage consisted of three 90-minute art-education workshops with two groups of ten teachers, where Vygotsky’s mediation was an essential component. In the second stage, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data collected in the workshops indicated that reading, whether on psychological topics or other areas of knowledge, is not part of teachers’ daily lives. Paradoxically, participants also demonstrated a strong need for these readings. They also revealed that thinking of the classroom as a zone of proximal development is still a distant reality. This phenomenon is associated with the lack of adequate training on psychology topics in teacher training and the absence of psychologists in schools. This lack of knowledge was also present in the interviews. Of these, three categories emerged as crucial: (a) pedagogical actions in the post-pandemic; (b) knowledge of psychology; and (c) socioemotional development of students. Results showed that pedagogical actions in the post-pandemic marked by readaptation and by an intense emotional burden and socioemotional development of students were perceived as negative emotions. Opportunities for progress are limited to private conversations undertaken without assistance from psychology professionals. Although this study was done with a limited number of
participants, the results point to two recommendations to policymakers: (a) bring psychology closer to schools and (b) provide extensive training in socioemotional development for teachers who work in public schools. These recommendations are of paramount importance for the future of Brazil.

ABSTRACT: There is a growing interest in using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for educational purposes within the higher education environments, while AI applications (such as ChatGPT) can transform traditional teaching and learning methods. ChatGPT is an advanced AI tool that generates new content and human-like responses. The purpose of this paper is to use ChatGPT as a research assistant in order to explore ways AI can be harnessed to enhance pedagogical practices in higher education. This is a qualitative study, in which the output and responses generated by ChatGPT provided a starting point for the investigation. AI can be harnessed to enhance pedagogical practices in higher education in various ways including personalized learning, automated assessment and feedback generation, virtual assistants and chatbots, content creation, resource recommendation, time management, language translation and support, research assistance, simulations, and virtual labs. Other educational affordances that can strengthen the teaching and learning experience regard collaboration and communication, accessibility and inclusivity, as well as AI literacy. When implementing AI tools such as ChatGPT in higher education, ethical considerations (e.g., data privacy, transparency, accessibility, cultural sensitivity), potential misuses, and concerns need to also be addressed. Although ChatGPT can aid the generation of content and ideas for further exploration, it is a complementary-supportive tool, and its output necessitates human evaluation and review. The integration of ChatGPT and other AI tools in the higher educational process/practices has implications for educators, students, design of curricula, and university policy makers.