Lecionação sem aulas? Questões de liberdade e segurança no modelo MAPE

In Portuguese language, the word aula (lecture) is etymologically rooted in the Greek word άυλή, which, in Ancient Greece, meant “courtyard” and suggested a balance between freedom and safety for nomadic shepherds and animals. Nowadays lectures are subject to huge restrictions in terms of time and space, which has strong implications for freedom and safety. However, the development of online instruction, especially in its asynchronous version, stimulates reflection on a possible recovery of the original meaning of άυλή, or even on the possibility of providing instruction without lectures, for asynchronous online instruction dilutes the work of instructors and students in time and space and naturally calls for students’ active participation in the educational process. Accordingly, after some reflections on the concept of άυλή, and on its relation with the concepts of freedom and safety, we report an empirical study, which was aimed at understanding how some teachers, who were attending teacher education courses, viewed asynchronous online learning. Considering that the participants had been exposed to MAPE model, they commented, in the context of interviews, some aspects of online learning in general and specific aspects of that same model, especially aspects that could be related to issues of freedom and safety. The findings of the study suggest that the participants acknowledge that MAPE model, overall, allows for much freedom and safety, despite the fact that some of them stated that they did not feel so safe with regard to some specific aspects.