Concepções e instrumentos de avaliação da aprendizagem na prática de professores (as) de ciências na Educação de Jovens e Adultos

Abstract

Assessment is a structural part of the educational process and plays an important role in the daily routines of students and teachers, and in doing so, it participates in the learning process. That said, there are two major perspectives conflicting in the scopus of the evaluation process. The perspective of using assessment in a qualitative and descriptive way of student performance coexists with a quantitative perspective interested in the production of mechanisms of comparison. These issues are even more complex when analyzed in the context of Brazilian classes of Youth and Adult Education, and in teaching sciences as well. In Brazil Youth and Adults education is characterized by the diversity of subjects affected by social and historical relations of inequality, and there is also a concern with the teaching of Sciences based in abstract formulations rather than the relationship with concrete life. As its central object, this thesis has the assessment for learning in the teaching of Sciences in Youth and Adult Education. The thesis aimed to analyse the discourses referring to the assessment for learning by Science teachers acting in the last years (third and fourth cycles) of Youth and Adults Education classes of the public schools in João Pessoa, Paraíba. It is theoretically based on works related to critical perspectives on assessment for learning, Youth and Adults Education and teaching of Sciences. Methodologically speaking, it was inspired by Critical Discourse Analysis and used the technique of semi structured interview for data collection. The subject group is formed by six Science teachers in the last years of Youth and Adult Education in the municipality of João Pessoa. As a result, there is a perspective on students characterization by the teachers regarded to personal life trajectories as part of the evaluation process in order to consider their special needs. Teachers informed there is a constant concern in the quality of the formation of the students and the attempt to reduce the evasion rates through the use of the formative assessment. Despite this, the assessment for learning is described as a challenge due to the imposition of school management to quantify knowledge, from a summative perspective, promoting pressures on students. The instruments, criteria and evaluation strategies adopted by teachers were placed as multiple and decided from the context of each class or according to school planning. The thesis highlights the interweaving dimension of assessment processes and the overlap between formative, summative and diagnostic conceptions of the assessment. It is also marked by the constant tension between quantitative and qualitative approaches to teaching. Sum, that’s the difficulty of applying and developing mechanisms that account for traditional formulations on assessment. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the subjects’ individual needs in a formative perspective that promotes improvement of the teaching-learning process, as well as to invest in the continuous training of teachers supporting the development of their assessment practices.