Repositório RCAAP

In the 90s, international educational policies, as well as the theoretical field of curriculum studies, gave centrality to the curriculum debate. It led countries with a centralist tradition to move away from the paradigm of a uniform and prescriptive curriculum and adopt a paradigm based on curricular contextualization. In the Portuguese system, following this paradigm, these new curricular policies determined that schools had to develop their curriculum projects. Since then, the literature on the subject has shown that the conception of the construction, implementation and evaluation dynamics of these curriculum projects is of a bureaucratic nature, obeying to the logic of normativity and mostly designed by external evaluation panels that proved unable to implement changes to curriculum practices. In this paper, the method of content analysis was used to present the results of the evaluation of 12 curriculum projects carried out in a collaborative network of Portuguese schools.

This study aims to discuss teachers’ judgment carried out by school agents during class councils at a state public school in Paraná. It consists of a set of findings from a qualitative study, based on data from class council observations followed by analysis of school documents. These elements were organized and interpreted applying Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory and Bardin’s (2011) content analysis. The empirical data allowed the categorization of the observed elements, specifically the terms used to describe the students. This led to the conclusion that non-scholastic aspects are more memorable for educators than those related to academic development. In addition, it was found that teachers’ expectations of students were fulfilled, also that aspects related to family structure were significant during the class council assessment. 

The global testing culture has expanded rapidly in recent decades. In these assessments, the most commonly tested areas are those of Language and Mathematics (LM). The focus and accountability policies have brought consequences for the teaching of the sciences. Based on recently published research, the present study gathers evidence collected in Brazil, Canada and Australia in order to understand the implications of these policies for the teaching of the sciences. The results showed that both the culture of testing, with its emphasis on LM, and accountability policies have generated a disregard and neglect of science teaching. This situation is caused mainly by the education systems and the school managers who create initiatives, actions and projects aimed at achieving LM results and targets.

In this interview, Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Sills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), comments on the role of the OECD and, in particular, of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), in the international education context, its relationship with actors in the educational community, as well as the impacts of its performance. The interview also addresses aspects related to Brazil’s participation in OECD educational programs and projects.

This study aims to analyze evidence of validity based on the content of the psychology test applied in the Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes (Enade) [National Exam of Student Proficiency] of 2015. We used Blueprint, a tool recommended in the international literature for test design. There were significant discrepancies between the skills and abilities presented in the test specifications, and in the cognitive demand demanded in almost all multiple-choice questions. Furthermore, there are skills and abilities presented in test specifications that were not in the test, and other skills and abilities that were represented by only one item, which compromise measurement reliability. We conclude that the evidence based on the content for this test shows the necessity to use tools to improve this primary source of evidence. 

This article aims to analyze student participation in class councils and its possible meaning for learning evaluation. It was based on the understanding that such participation and interaction with teachers in this context can constitute an essential element which favors student autonomy and development, as well as other learning and evaluation practices. Based on qualitative research, a case study was carried out in a school with a class council having student participation. The understandings of the subjects in the class council reveal that student participation can provide a more horizontal relationship, dialogue and negotiation between teachers and students. This favors reflections and changes in the subjects that comprise the teaching and learning process. 

This article aims to analyze the main factors related to school delay in the State of Minas Gerais. We applied Hierarchical Logistic Models, based on data from Prova Brasil 2013 for 5th and 9th graders, to identify whether there are differences between the factors associated with school delay in the early and final years of elementary education. Results show that student characteristics and school factors are related to the probability of school retention, with regional differences in this regard. Results also show that the greatest chance of age-grade mismatch is for non-white male students, who also work part- or full-time and attend heterogeneous classes in schools with programs to reduce dropout rates. In addition, the performance of retained students seems to be harmed more in some schools than in others, depending on students’ socioeconomic level. 

This paper proposes to analyze experiences of evaluating physical education in schools using “emancipatory evaluation”. This denomination was used during the period of curriculum reform in the public education network of Rio Grande do Sul in 2012, and was in force until 2016. It takes a qualitative and ethnographic approach, using interviews, participant observation and document analysis. The empirical research involved following two Polytechnic High School groups, from two different schools, in physical education classes and in the class councils of one academic quarter of 2016. The data were analyzed using triangulation in the categories of regulation and emancipation. Different tensions and contradictions occurred in evaluative practices. The presence of elements that influenced these practices was also evident in the sense of maintaining regulation, and not in participation or emancipation.

In this paper, we present an unusual approach to factors associated with academic achievement since we use hierarchical quantile regressions. While the traditional approach aims to identify important factors based on individuals with an intermediate performance, our approach aims to detect the effects on performance distribution quantiles, thus allowing to identify how a certain factor can affect poor, intermediate-, and high-performing pupils. We describe the methodology and use it with data from Portuguese and Mathematics tests of the 8th grade of primary education in the Brazilian state of Pará, in 2016. 

The article analyzes findings from a broader research on the institutional assessment process of a Regional Coordination Unit of Education. It aims to identify if changes occurred during and after the completion of the diagnostic evaluation implemented by the State System of Participatory Evaluation for the state schools of Rio Grande do Sul. The sources of analysis were the online institutional assessment database, observations during trainings for the implementation of the policy, and interviews with people responsible for preparing the diagnosis. The results have shown that the assessment system objectives, as well as the dynamics involved in its completion, were observed and maintained, generating knowledge and learning able to qualify institutional practices. 

This article analyzes the phenomenon called Juvenilization in Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA) [Adult and Youth Education] as a result of the exclusion of young people with age-grade discrepancy from regular school. The assumption is that the phenomenon has intensified, as the flow correction has worked as an escape mechanism used by managers to avoid the penalties prescribed in the accountability policies for schools and teachers not reaching the performance targets established for the different levels of the system. Statistical data about the EJA academic transcripts from the municipal school network of Rio de Janeiro are used to support the large-scale assessment policies. These policies, announced as guarantors of the quality of education, have favored the maintenance of school exclusion processes. Poststructuralist contributions, particularly Discourse Theory, support the problematizing of an instrumental concept of quality.

Linking teacher training and practice to professionalism has been a fruitful discussion among those who have contributed to the development of professional masters in education and reflected on the scope of this type of post-graduation. This study was designed in the current context of implementation, consolidation and evaluation of these master’s programs, in which the authors of this article are involved. Based on bibliographical and documentary research, as well as on the quantitative and qualitative survey of the programs they participate in, these authors aim to characterize not only the master students themselves, but also the nature of the results obtained in the first dissertations on the subject, by presenting challenges and possibilities. 

Evaluation covers one of the most controversial issues within the educational system. According to the curriculum in action, this practice acquires the most varied contours, assuming either a classificatory and excluding character or an investigative and analytical character. Adopting the latter implies disregarding quantification and the assignment of values for successful learning, as well as the classification of students. The purpose of this article is to analyze the function that the documentation acquires in the cultural curriculum of Physical Education. Thus, we scrutinized pedagogic documentation prepared by a teacher who works in a public school in São Paulo state, analyzing how didactic actions are reorganized according to the records of teaching activities and student responses. The results show the potential of documents as a resource for the evaluation of the work performed and the consequent reorientation of the route. 

This paper aims to conduct a theoretical discussion by revisiting, systematizing, and reflecting upon different concepts and trends in the field of educational evaluation. The historical construction of these concepts of evaluation indicates specific social and educational demands, that change the focus of educational evaluation at different times, in the field of educational evaluation. It should be stressed that, in the current context, the understanding of educational evaluation is associated with the hybridization of different concepts of evaluation. This hybridism, seen in the evaluation policies, has evidenced a moment of transition in the trends of concepts of evaluation, with important advances and retreats in the reach, objects and logic of educational evaluation. It does so by resolving agreement or conflict between the concepts of evaluation.  

The purpose of this article is to analyze factors related to the implementation of institutional evaluation in education networks and schools. The study corpus consisted of articles that deal with results of research on the implementation of this type of evaluation in basic education, published in national journals. The evidence found in the studies shows that the most influential factor in the implementation of institutional evaluation is the development of democratic management in schools. On the other hand, collaborative work and participation of the school community were identified as changes resulting from such implementation. Institutional evaluation is, therefore, a process dependent on other changes in the school and on the network. However, when implemented, the evaluation contributes to many of these changes. Hence, if we want to develop institutional evaluation, the best way is to start it and improve it as it is put into practice.

This article aims to characterize teaching practices that occur in the classrooms of the elementary school, in the area of mathematics, based on an international cooperative research. Conclusive and interpretative summaries were developed using a qualitative methodology in which data were gathered from classroom observations and interviews, grounded in an investigative matrix, which we called narratives. The analyses of these narratives showed the following results: assessment practices are still centered on classification; effective participation of students in the teaching and learning process is greatly reduced; lack of integration regarding the relationship among the processes of teaching, assessment and learning; among others. This study also shows that there is a desire to conduct an assessment for learning. However, it is necessary to strengthen the theoretical field on assessment so that, in the classroom, we can problematize and counter established practices.

This article aims to present research results intended to identify possible contributions from the Australian experience in evaluation early childhood education, in order to analyze similar initiatives existent in Brazil. It is based on documentary analysis and information collected in loco, when we conducted research internship abroad, at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 2016. The results of the study show that the Australian evaluation initiative reflects the concern with dimensions of quality which are considered fundamental, by the legislation and documents guiding children’s education in Brazil, even though the social and educational contexts are very different in both countries. Furthermore, they indicate the importance of articulation and federative collaboration between federal, state and municipal governments for the deployment of policies focused on early childhood.