Processo dialógico de desenvolvimento da auto-observação docente em sessão de autoconfrontação simples

Abstract

This article analyzes the process of "teaching," learning, and development of self-observation through the method of simple self-confrontation, one of the approaches used in the Activity Clinic (AC). The analysis is based on the transcriptions of a session conducted with a Geography teacher from basic education. Developed by French psychologist Yves Clot in the 1990s, the AC aims, among other goals, to investigate and transform disengaged forms of work carried out in an automated and unreflective manner. Adapted to the educational context, the Teaching Activity Clinic (TAC) applies this approach to the continuing education of teachers, promoting critical reflection and the transformation of pedagogical practice. To understand the process of teacher self-observation in this context, this research draws on the theoretical contributions of Mikhail Bakhtin, with his theory of Speech Genres, and Lev Vygotsky, with his theory of human development. Based on these perspectives, the study seeks to highlight linguistic-discursive markers that reveal the teacher's initial difficulty in self-observing and, simultaneously, the progressive development of the discursive genre required for this type of analysis. This process supports a significant change in how the teacher perceives, understands, and modifies their classroom practice. When faced with the need to reflect on their actions, the teacher encounters the challenge of observing and describing their own performance in detail. This task involves not only recalling actions but also naming, organizing, and interpreting them—confirming Vygotsky's idea that language is not merely a vehicle for expressing thought, but a condition for its realization. All thoughts, as he states, "solve a problem" (2001, p. 288), and during simple self-confrontation, the teacher faces the problem of describing themselves in action, mobilizing linguistic resources still in the process of development. The transcript analysis shows that, throughout the session, the teacher gradually appropriates the discursive genre of self-observation. With the mediation of the intervener — who supports the process through active listening and strategic questioning — the teacher begins to revisit their practice with greater clarity and critical awareness. This path highlights the role of TAC as a distinct space-time for continuing education, where the transition from lived experience to understood experience takes place. In this process, language emerges both as an instrument and as an object of transformation. It is through language that the teacher learns to perceive, analyze, narrate, and, above all, transform their own pedagogical practice — becoming more conscious of the choices made in the classroom and more attuned to the actual learning needs of their students.