The role of socio-affective competence, acceptance, and ethics of on-line tutors

The use of the socio-affective competencies and honesty in pedagogical practice of distance tutor was inquired. The research analyzed the perceptions of tutors in undergraduate courses in a teaching private institution located in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). All the authors recognized the meaning of the competencies according to the distance education precepts. Several situations where to use the acceptance and honesty were correctly pointed by the majority. For two of the participants, the acceptance would be the main socio-affective competence to be required to a distance tutor. In the unanimous opinion of the participants, the cultural and intellectual diversity of a group of students would favor the collective learning and would stimulate the development of the capacity of acceptance and mutual respect of students and tutors. Moreover, the lack of acceptance would be more frequent in the relation between students than with the tutor. Still, problematic situations of agressiveness or presumption of students or as questionings for the technical competence of the tutor, for the majority of the participants, could be avoided, or also, circumvented, with honest attitudes of the tutor. For all, would be duty of the tutor, by mean of the socio-affective competencies, build the partnership and conquer the trust of the distance education student