Conceptions and practice of learning assessment in mathematics teaching

Abstract

This study is the result of an excerpt from a larger research on Evaluation, which uses the case study method, generating data through Semi-structured Interviews and Balance of Knowledge, an instrument created by Bernard Charlot (1996). Based on the qualitative perspective that prioritizes the participants as the focus and meaning of the lived experiences that were absorbed by them during school life, being guided by a theoretical framework on the subject, this study has the general objective of understanding the conceptions and evaluation practices of Mathematics teachers working in the final years of Elementary School, in two public educational institutions in the interior of Sergipe, more precisely in the city of Estância, an institution belonging to the municipal network and the second, to the state network. This research is theoretically anchored in authors who discuss the Assessment of Learning and the Assessment of Mathematical Learning, such as Fiorentini and Lorenzato (2007), Hadji (2001), Hoffmann (2019), Luckesi (2003; 2010; 2018) and Zabala (2014), among others. The survey data were weighted based on content analysis from the perspective of Bardin (2016). Following the concepts of Bardin's content analysis (2016), the information generated was organized and described through categories. Thus, three categories were listed: a) evaluation concepts and functions; b) assessment in teaching practice; and c) challenges for the practice of assessment, all focused on assessment in Mathematics teaching and organized to present the results from this study. And the results indicate that the traditional conception of evaluation predominates in the daily life of the researched Basic Education schools. However, there is an awakening of some professors to the importance of improving the evaluative practice. Undoubtedly, it is difficult to change conceptions when they are formed from the beginning of the human development process, but this does not prevent efforts to continue being employed with the objective of elucidating and making practical the conceptions that value the teaching-learning process, with the student and the construction of its knowledge as a center. However, despite advances, reflections and some transformations, there is a noticeable inconsistency between theory and practice.