Avaliação da aprendizagem: estudo de caso nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental em Fortaleza-CE

Abstract

Assessment of learning is often used to classify and select students. This way, it loses its true essence, that is to instruct teacher in his/ her pedagogic practice and help student in the construction of his/ her knowledge. Only with those requirements, the assessment will be, in fact, formative. The main purpose of the current research was to accomplish an investigation about the practice of learning assessment in Elementary School. Specifically, this study aimed: i) knowing the assessment instruments used; ii) investigating the everyday difficulties to assess learning in that educational level and iii) collecting suggestions for improvement of the assessment practices. Thus, a qualitative research was accomplished, as a case study. The semi-structured interview was used as instrument for data collection. A content analysis of the collected data was accomplished. The sample was intentional and composed by two teachers, one from public school and the other one from a private school. The results revealed that assessment of learning in Elementary School requests: an understanding of students in their totality, several assessment instruments, as well as a larger proximity in professor-student relationship. The teachers from both schools, public and private, pointed out the inclination of written assessments and a classificatory perspective as difficulties. They suggest more interactions among teachers, parents and school administration.