Distance Education has expanded in different educational levels, especially in higher education. Such expansion points to the need to investigate and promote the quality of its learning processes. This paper explores the notion of intercognition and its potential as a category to analyze dialogic learning processes in the context of distance education. The study, based on empirical investigation, aimed to interpret learning potentials of the conversational dynamics interaction between teacher-tutors and students within discussion forums of a Teacher Education Program. The focus was to understand the role of the teacher-tutors and identify indicators of intercognition within concrete verbal interactions. Results show the significant relationship between the interlocutors' dialogic engagement and the quality of learning processes in distance learning, with indicators of intercognition characterized by active, frequent and pertinent participation of interlocutors in discussion forums.
Dialogic construction of knowledge; Dialogism; Discussion forum; Pedagogical mediation; Distance higher education
