Introduction

A central aspect that makes the discussion about educational processes during the COVID-19 pandemic interesting is the role played by information and communication technology, as a central tool in pedagogical mediation processes. The use of the internet, cell phones, tablets and computers and software in general has been fundamental, all means without which it would be impossible to have access to knowledge, to develop teaching and learning processes, in other words, as instruments of pedagogical mediation. Thus, the quality of pedagogical mediation was directly associated with access to and the ability to use these tools, their greater or lesser quality, and the conditions in which students and teachers could use them.

In that context, the secondary role to which the teacher was relegated was highlighted, resulting from the conditionality in relation to technology for carrying out the teaching process. The adaptation of this process to the new conditions, which required significant and different efforts from teachers, was based on the distancing of students and was marked by a similar distancing of co-workers, with whom it is essential to relate in order to establish affective and cognitive exchanges, essential for the qualification of thought processes and pedagogical mediation.

Therefore, the unequal conditions that students had to deal with to access the tools necessary for classes were also notable in that pandemic context. The financial structure of families represented the sieve based on which the student had equipment with better or worse technological capacity, as well as more or less adequate conditions for accessing and using technology. Therefore, a new selectivity attached to educational processes was developed, via access to technology, although also marked by traditional economic and social insertion inequality. To such selective conditions of access and use of technology were added the deficiencies of the pedagogical process itself, marked by the distance between students and teachers, students and their colleagues, who suffered the effect of precarious pedagogical mediations, marked by the lack of monitoring of cognitive and affective, essential for good learning.

It is with this state of affairs in mind that the present study was formulated, the objective of which is to discuss, under the guidance of Historical- Cultural Psychology (HCP), data from a survey with psychology graduates from four universities, three of which are in the Northeast region and one of the South region of Brazil, about remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. This text begins with considerations about the training of psychologists and the impacts of remote teaching, focused on the teaching-learning process; It follows, first, with the presentation of the methodology used to obtain information from students, and then, with a discussion of the results found in the study.

2 Psychologists’ Training and the teaching-learning process

In the discussion about the training of psychologists in the context of the pandemic, it is important to consider a premise that is very dear to historical-cultural psychology, which is that teaching should be organized in such a way as to provide students with the opportunity to have access to scientific knowledge, as proposed by Vygotsky (²⁰⁰⁰). This same premise is made by historical-critical pedagogy, defended by ^{Saviani (2003}). Therefore, it is important to problematize the effects that remote teaching produced in the process of learning by undergraduates.

Discussing the role of psychologists in the training of university professors, ^{Zavadski (2009}) reaffirmed how important schooling processes are in the development of subjects in adulthood. Therefore, when thinking about training in psychology, in the context of the pandemic, we cannot fail to consider how much this type of teaching may have affected students' development and learning processes. To understand the issues that encompass the teaching and learning process, like Zavadski (²⁰⁰⁹), we understand that development does not end when the person reaches adulthood; It is a continuous process throughout life, and the importance of schooling for its development is highlighted.

Just before the pandemic, studies that discuss training in psychology in Brazil highlight that, through the ordinance issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture 2117/2019 (^{BRASIL, 2019}), in-person undergraduate courses were authorized to introduce the offer of load hours in the distance education (DE) modality in the pedagogical and curricular organization, up to a limit of 40% of the total workload. This regulation was soon questioned within the scope of the Federal Psychology Council (CFP) and the Brazilian Psychology Teaching Association (ABEP), which at the time urged training institutions to discuss the curricular guidelines that guide the Psychologists’ training. The context of the pandemic and the guidance for remote teaching arrived in the midst of these discussions, required new training configurations and, thus, in August 2020, the CFP issued guidelines about the practice of internships in the remote teaching modality, as well as indicating the activities possible to be developed in light of what was being oriented as a training possibility (^{CFP, 2020}).

Amidst the challenges of various orders that the pandemic presented, training in psychology was being guided and problematized. In 2020, several psychology entities signed a document (^{CFP, 2020}) that raised questions about the replacement of activities and practices in psychology training. An appeal was made to propose alternatives that did not focus on the quality of the courses or the health of teachers and students, taking into account issues such as access to remote teaching, possible assessments in this context, internship activities, among others.

The bibliographic survey, with the aim of investigating scientific productions about the impact of emergency remote teaching on undergraduate studies, developed by ^{Facci and Bertuccini (2022}), presents data to consider. The authors searched for studies in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) virtual library, using two descriptors: “ensino remoto” + “ensino superior”(“remote teaching” + “higher teaching”), identifying 15 articles, all referring to the difficulties encountered in remote teaching. The most recurrent difficulties were access to technology/internet (07 articles); changes in the mode of interaction/lack of participation in classes (07 articles); lack of training of teachers and students for the remote environment (06 articles); adaptation/control to new tools/technologies (06 articles); emptying of the teaching-learning/didactic-pedagogical process/compromising the quality of teaching offered (05 articles); digital exclusion/access inequalities (05 articles); lack of differentiation between home environment and work/study environment - loss of private life (05 articles); increase in hours worked/flexibility of working hours (04 articles); lack of a conducive environment for studying (04 articles); difficulty focusing/concentrating/learning/attention (04 articles).

We found a variety of difficulties in remote teaching, which refer to the teaching-learning process. We argue, based on historical-cultural psychology, that it is up to education, through scientific knowledge, to provoke the development of psychological functions (attention, logical memory, abstraction, creativity, among others), as proposed by ^{Vygotski (2000}). These higher functions develop from elementary functions, in a dialectical process, in which, through the appropriation of signs created throughout history, elementary functions are elevated to more complex functions. As ^{Pasqualini (2009}) reinforces, these functions originate in culture and are not biological. This does not mean that the elementary functions are annihilated, on the contrary, they provide the basis for the higher functions, they are overcome by a new form of psychic functioning.

^{Vygotsky and Luria (1996}) state that in the process of appropriation and objectification, man acquires specific ways of controlling his behavior, through the use of mediators, signs, ceasing to act instinctively in the relationship he establishes with reality, with other men. ^{Vygotski (2000}) makes it clear that all human behavior is mediated by instruments (which transform external reality) and signs (which modify man internally).

During the schooling process, upon entering higher education, the appropriation of curricular content continues to provoke the development of these higher psychological functions, in order to promote in graduates the awareness of reality, in a voluntary process, according to ^{Zavadski (2009}).

The student, when appropriating new scientific content, as explained by ^{Monteiro (2015}), expands the ability to become aware, in a reflective way, through scientific knowledge. Therefore, in our understanding, higher education must be focused on the continued development of theoretical thinking, leading graduates to develop new concepts, in which the form and content of higher psychological functions become richer, more complex, providing support for human and professional training at the university.

This professional training, in the educational process, occurs through the unity between affection and cognition. ^{Vigotski (2000}) defends the existence of a unity between affect and cognition in the cross-functional consciousness system. For the author, “affect is the alpha and omega, the first and last link, the prologue and epilogue of all psychic development” (^{VYGOTSKI, 1996}, p. 299). As ^{Gomes (2013}) analyzes, affection begins and ends the process of the individual's psychic development, the formation of their personality, thus permeating their entire development. The student needs to be affected in their learning process. For ^{Monteiro (2015}), emotions are superior psychological functions constituted socially and biologically. “This derives from the affection and sensation of objective reality and the relationship between people, providing significant content for these relations, with historicity as an important characteristic” (^{MONTEIRO, 2015}, p. 87). In this way, the individual's way of feeling the world around them is transformed by the modification of senses and meanings in a given historical period.

Considering the unity between affect and cognition, the relationship between sense and meaning, it is possible to question the extent to which remote teaching and social distancing had implications for the training of psychology students. The challenges experienced by teachers and students in the teaching and learning process in psychology courses across the country led the Psychology and Educational Policies Working Group of the National Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEP) to begin research of national scope and which aimed to identify and analyze the effects of remote teaching for the training of psychologists, from the student and the teacher’s point of view. The research was carried out at universities in all regions of Brazil, but in this article, we made a selection and analyzed data from two regions in order to share the impacts of remote teaching as assessed by students.

3 Research methodology

The research developed, in terms of objective, was characterized as descriptive and explanatory. It was systematized to identify the impacts of remote teaching on the training of psychologists, and thus, we will describe how students experienced this training experience. In addition to being descriptive, it also aims to be explanatory, as it is not limited to presenting the reality experienced by psychology undergraduates. Based on historical-cultural psychology, historical-dialectical materialism emerges as a method that guides us to go beyond what reality presents because, according to ^{González and Mello (2014}, p. 31), research must be oriented to reach “the root of the human problem, to analyze and understand the origin of the problem” explaining the multiple determinations that are articulated in the configuration of phenomena, here, the psychologists’ training in the context of the pandemic.

The information was collected at the beginning of 2021, a time when social isolation was a guideline in all educational institutions in the country, as it was not yet possible to control the Covid spread. To do this, we used a questionnaire with open and closed questions applied online. The questionnaires covered topics regarding the students' perception of the student-student, teacher-student relationship during remote teaching; positive and negative points of this form of teaching; use of technology in classes; difficulties experienced with the remote teaching modality and feelings experienced regarding remote teaching. Access to students was facilitated through prior contact with course coordinators involved in the research.

As already mentioned, the research will be a sample involving 39 participants from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Northeast and South regions of Brazil. In the northeast, students from two public and one private HEI participated, totaling 19 students. In the south, 20 undergraduates participated from a public HEI. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the State University of Maringá (UEM), on December 4th, 2020, according to legal advice number 4,439,486.

The questionnaires were sent to students in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th year of Psychology, from the four universities, using Google Forms. We analyzed the information presented in all the questionnaires that were answered by the undergraduates. At the time of the research, all participants were regularly enrolled in psychology courses. Everyone was aware of the research objectives, gave their consent by signing the Free and Informed Consent Form and, after adhesion, the online questionnaire was completed, which was immediately sent to the research coordinators.

The data will be presented and analyzed and the articulations woven in order to problematize some determinants that interfered in the training of psychologists in the context of remote teaching, some contradictions that were present in this process, as well as the conditions offered or denied during the period of remote teaching. In order to present our analysis, we focused the discussion on three axes: a) the teacher-student and student-student relationship; b) the use of technology in remote teaching; c) students’ feelings about remote teaching.

We tabulated all the responses obtained and then moved on to data analysis. All questionnaires were read in full to have a general idea of students' perception of remote teaching and its implications for academic training. The axes of analysis emerged from the responses obtained in the questionnaires.

4 Results and analysis

Research shows that the pandemic context has affected issues related to the survival conditions of many families, especially the poorest. According to data from ABRASCO (²⁰²⁰), the pandemic exacerbated inequalities and its harmful effects affected the poorest, black people, women, indigenous people, people from the north and people from the northeast of Brazil. Considering that the majority of research participants (46%) are part of families with an income below three minimum wages, we can say that meeting their most basic needs constituted a challenge for these students and their families.

Linked to this reality of the lack of survival conditions, it is important to consider that in the first days, after the pandemic decree by the World Health Organization, on March 11, 2020, education, at all levels, also had to look for alternatives of operation. And in higher education institutions, this search for alternatives penalized teachers and students who needed to appropriate material and technical conditions to carry out their activities, a reality that affected relations between students and teachers, as well as evoking different feelings among those who lived the experience.

4.3 Students' feelings about remote teaching

The articulation of previous data regarding teacher-student and student- student relation, as well as the use of technology in remote teaching, were decisive in the emergence of a range of feelings experienced by research participants and which speak about the impacts of this type of teaching in psychology training. We present in the table below the answers that students gave about the feelings they had during remote teaching.

Source: The chart was prepared by the authors based on research data.

Chart 1 - Students’ feelings regarding their training in remote mode 

Only four (10.25%) of the 39 students who participated in the study reported satisfaction or well-being during remote teaching. Fear, discontent, insecurity, sadness also permeated training during remote teaching. The research already mentioned indicates that the transition to emergency remote teaching was a source of suffering for the majority of students and teachers.

In the research carried out by ^{Facci and Bertuccini (2022}), the main sufferings addressed in research carried out by the authors of the articles analyzed were exhaustion, dissatisfaction and demotivation, which culminated in turning off the cameras and directly affected the development of the teaching- learning process; anxiety and worry about careers; incidence of cases of depression, bipolar affective disorder, generalized anxiety, adjustment disorder and Burnout syndrome; the elitism in public higher education with the exclusion of the poorest segments of the population; and also reports from students who needed to seek psychological support.

Historical-cultural psychology, through ^{Leontiev (1978}), analyzes that for activity in man's relation with reality, there must be a reason, so that it incites action. However, the experience of remote teaching, based on the students' responses, seems to have caused demotivation in relation to teaching. It is important to return to what we discussed about the affect-cognition unit present in the transmission and appropriation of knowledge process and the formation of students' consciousness during the ERT.

^{Leontiev (1978}) analyzes that individual consciousness is formed by sensitive content, meanings and senses. Sensitive contents refer to the image of what exists outside the individual's consciousness, linked to the subject's connection with reality. Meanings are related to social practice and express an ideological representation of society - religious, philosophical, political - and they are subordinated to socio-historical laws and also to the internal logic of its development. Meaning connects the individual with the reality of their own life in this world, with their motives.

As ^{Monteiro (2015}) analyzes, feelings are characteristic of human beings, having a historical-social origin, influenced by cultural needs and experiences and they are organized according to the social conditions of life and actions of man according to his activity. In this sense, for Blagonadezhina (¹⁹⁶⁹), what will motivate the subject to carry out an activity is the search for the satisfaction of a need and is linked to the demands placed by society. Were students motivated to study during remote teaching, while facing panic and grief? Would the meaning they were giving to training be the same, related to the social meaning regarding the appropriation of knowledge and professional preparation? We see that the students were concerned about their training, as we found in the questionnaires, however, was there a consonance between the meaning and sense of the training?

Calve, Rossler and Silva state (2015), based on Leontiev's Activity Theory, that the concepts of sense and meaning must be analyzed in their entirety. In the case of this research, we agree with the authors, which are fundamental concepts “to analyze the role of meaning in learning as an activity of appropriation of school content” (p. 439).

We can analyze that, with ERT, a change occurred in the meaning that students attribute to the study activity. A student states: “My life has become sitting in front of a computer screen.” We question: does this mean that we are actually having access to knowledge, forming new concepts, making new generalizations towards understanding reality and professional preparation in training? With the lack of bonding and interaction with teachers and students, in addition to the difficulties caused by this pandemic period, teaching has become an activity devoid of meaning related to deepening the topics researched, as we can see in one student's statement: “There is no relation student-teacher. There is no relation whatsoever. The teacher speaks alone and the students listen, but they did not internalize what was being said.”

In this process, we agree with ^{Monteiro (2015}) that there may have been a strangeness in the constitution of the students' personality, in the structuring of their activities and in the appropriation of knowledge at the university. We can understand, therefore, that the suffering experienced was probably related to the lack of unity between sense and meaning, in the formation of students' consciousness, contributing to the feelings presented in the answers given by students who were graduating in psychology.

5 Final considerations

Drawing inspiration from Historical-Cultural Psychology, notably in the work of Vigostki, its understood that mediation Pedagogy is not just about the presence of the teacher in the classroom, speaking about content about which there is the assumption that students know nothing and that, therefore, they need to learn. In this way, because they don't know, students cannot contribute to the class, the fundamental role of dialogue, the exchange of experiences, the joint construction of knowledge in pedagogical mediation is highlighted. Then, the qualification of students' thought processes is possible, that is, a real learning effect about their subjectivity, or else, about their higher psychological functions.

Even though we did not intend to deepen, in the context of the present study, the theoretical elements that provide the basis for Vygotskian reflection, it is essential to point it out, the person's action in society, manipulating instruments and interacting with other people, with other contexts, notably through language, as a sine qua non condition for the constitution of his humanity, his condition as a being of culture. From this perspective, if the conditions for a person to operate, transform and appropriate the cultural meanings which they come into contact do not exist or are inadequate, their attribution of meaning to them, or rather, their understanding and their ability to conceptualize them in a particular meanings may be inconsistent or of low quality. Their learning and development are compromised, as is their ability to interact.

It is from this limitation in the quality of pedagogical mediation that comes the greater commitment of people as a result of the pedagogical processes developed in the context of social isolation. Although it cannot be said that mediation was non-existent, it was certainly greatly impoverished by the fact that distances, although shortened by technology, did not favor the meaning process, personal development of concepts and learning and development. It is important to highlight that this limitation did not only have an impact on students, but also on teachers, as dialogue constitutes a fruitful moment of learning, improvement of meanings and attribution of sense for everyone involved in these exchanges.

Furthermore, in the wake of reflections regarding the role of technology in the context of education, it is emphasized that this is not a criticism centered on technological tools, but on how they are used as a pedagogical resource, generally justified to replace teaching action. What businesspeople defend, whether in the context of the Third Way or in the purest liberalism and, therefore, the criticisms directed at both alternatives, is the contraction of spending, leading to the simplification and impoverishment of the educational context, notably when they disregard the role of teachers, thus compromising the development of students. Instead of training teachers to deal with technological tools in order to qualify the mediations that take place in school spaces, their role is simply canceled or secondary.

This secondaryization, as ^{Facci (2004}) points out, causes a hollowing out of teaching activity, a disqualification of pedagogical work and, consequently, the devaluation of theory. This aspect was evidenced in the need to change the content for remote classes, contributing to many of them reporting being very concerned about the training they had received. We cannot forget that, in addition to contact between teachers and students, the internship itself had to be changed, also being carried out with social distancing. The second place of aspects such as the quality of teaching and effective learning constitutes an exclusionary inclusion, in the words of ^{Ferraro (1999}), similar to what was observed in the remote teaching modality, during the pandemic.

Suffering was present in the students’ various responses. Suffering due to the pandemic, frustration with the way of teaching they were being subjected to. Although it is considered that this was “a necessary evil”, such an experience cannot reinforce a teaching proposal that lacks a close relation among participants in the educational process, as stated in the introduction of this work. The challenges of the pandemic have not ended, as we are currently experiencing the consequences of this troubled period, in which pedagogical mediations did not take place in a way that contributed to the development of the human race. The fight continues and we have to, collectively, find strategies to deal with the suffering and precariousness of education, resulting from the meager investments in public universities.