Digital mediation and mental representations: a study on cognitive hybridization in the articulation between humans and non-humans in Natural Sciences classes

Abstract

This article presents a study on how digital mediation in the teaching-learning process of Modern and Contemporary Physics concepts in elementary school establishes the production of hybrid mechanisms of cognition between humans and non-humans, in light of Bruno Latour's generalized symmetry. To this end, we chose as knowledge content the phenomenon of nuclear fusion, foreseen as an object of knowledge in the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) of Natural Sciences. In view of this, we adopted the articulation of three theoretical references, the Network Cognitive Mediation Theory (TMC), responsible for discussing the mediation mechanisms as processing external to the human brain and its implications on the cognitive structure of students, the Theory of Mental Models that classifies and categorizes the types of mental representations and Bruno Latour's Symmetrical Anthropology that provides a systemic, reticular and nondichotomized view of the construction of reality. The initial results were obtained after analyzing the questionnaires and the students' verbal and sign languages. Subsequently, we interpreted the results in accordance with the concepts of hybridization, detours and translations of Latourian thought. We found that digital mediation in this context influences the cognitive mechanisms used by students and the sophistication of the mental representations constructed by them. Finally, we recognize that both the teaching-learning process and the construction of mental representations based on digital mediation constitute Latourian hybrids, as the actors involved begin to share human and non-human skills.