Repositório RCAAP

The article presents a study comparing Portugal and Brazil's higher education evaluation systems and their influences on initial teacher education curricula. We used a qualitative methodology to analyze how the evaluation systems provide a basis for higher education and supervision processes in order to promote improvement in education quality and the valuing of institutional identities. Results indicate that external evaluation processes have influenced the curricula as they underline the positive aspects and strengths of teacher education programs, thus reinforcing current curricular practices and concepts. We conclude that as regulation and supervision processes build on evaluation results that promote institutional identities, they create political strategies that foster institutional management’s accountability for improving the quality of initial teacher education. 

This article aims to analyze student perception of learning evaluation regarding the educational policy implemented in the municipal school network of Santo André (SP). It is a qualitative study that used analytical triangulation to assess aspects of the educational policy of the municipality, grounded in a democratic management perspective, based on official documents. It discusses the literature in the field of learning evaluation, and presents information collected through focus groups with 5th grade students from two municipal schools. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis. The data show that students see the evaluation positively, as an instrument that promotes and supports advances in classroom learning, indicating possible reflections of democratic management principles implemented in municipal education.

This paper analyzes the dimensionality of the general knowledge test for admission into the Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (Unesp) and consolidates the construction of a scale in a test that includes items associated with the various subjects forming the high school curriculum in the state of São Paulo. Although the test is an interdisciplinary one, this study shows the feasibility of adopting a one-dimensional measure through item response theory. In addition, we used full information factor analysis to map the skills and competencies measured by the test. The main factors found were logical reasoning, proficiency in English and knowledge of Humanities.

This article looks at how the evaluation of teaching and learning is prescribed in the curricula of teacher training courses in Physical Education in seven countries of Latin America. It is a qualitative, exploratory study, which uses critical documentary analysis as a theoretical-methodological approach and the Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires (IRaMuTeQ) as a tool to support analysis. Fourteen subject evaluation plans are used as sources. The analysis of the data indicates that the subjects are intended for discussion and teaching of evaluation of the teaching and learning processes, their implications in the context of basic education, the projection of possibilities of evaluation practices and for establishing the relationship between theory and practice. This trend becomes clear through the use of some words, such as “tool”, “technique”, “practice”, associated with the “theory and design of evaluation” that supports it, relating to “physical education” in the context of professional education. 

This article analyzes Brazil’s participation in the Arcu-Sul system and the perspective of Brazilian actors on the accreditation process of Mercosur. The system aims to establish regional criteria for the quality of higher education in Mercosur. Interviews were conducted with Brazilian actors participating in the accreditation process of this system. The results emphasize that Brazil plays an important role and, for some actors, the accreditation process takes place fully within the country. However, the data indicate that Brazil creates obstacles to the functioning of the system. From this perspective, it can be seen that Brazil’s participation in the Arcu-Sul system is very prominent and can contribute to ensure quality in the region.

Programa Bolsa Família has multiple connections with education, and possibly reduces the numerous dimensions of educational inequality faced by its beneficiaries. Based on the idea that the right to education presupposes the guarantee of something common and thus equal for all, this study adopted the conception of educational inequality of Marcel Crahay (2002), who defines three dimensions of educational equality: access, treatment and knowledge. It analyzed how the program aims to reduce and has effects on the reduction of the numerous dimensions of educational inequality drawing on a literature review. It concludes that the main effects of Programa Bolsa Família are on the dimension of access, even though it has potential and incipient effects on the dimension of treatment and learning, mainly through sectorial integration.

The present study introduces new possibilities, for the analysis of educational policy implementation, into the field of education. It seeks to understand the implementation process of the Prêmio Escola Nota Dez (PENDez) (Award Winning School) in the state of Ceará. This is done from the point of view of implementing agents, in four pairs of partner schools in the Cariri (CE) region. The theoretical-methodological choices, from the perspective of the Street Level Bureaucracy and the Mid-Level Bureaucracy, opened a range of research possibilities along with the implementing agents and their interaction in the policy context. This study shows that the implementing agents make adaptations to the curriculum in the evaluation and the pedagogic work in order to earn the award. In addition, these interventions affect the interpretation and implementation of the PENDez. Therefore, the policy becomes adapted to the possibilities and constraints imposed by the implementing agencies. 

The recent publication of the National Common Curricular Base (Base Nacional Comum Curricular) (BNCC), in the Brazilian context, has gained intense public visibility and, through various approaches, has become a prime target of academic studies on the implementation of curricular policies in our country. The present article seeks to identify some elements that may guide an evaluation process of this curricular policy according to, on the one hand, the belief in the BNCC and, on the other hand, the panorama of criticism outlined in the academic output. In order to do this, an analysis based on the recognition and discussion of the concepts of quality of education and competence outlined in the document and in materials used for its dissemination as well as on articles on the subject will be conducted. From these considerations, issues for the evaluation of the process of transforming these promises into real curricula are highlighted.

This paper aims to propose a methodology for identifying patterns related to learning mathematics and the characteristics of the school environment. It was applied to the data of the Prova Brasil 2013, focusing on students in their 9th year of education, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The approach, supported by education experts, consists of proposing a dimensionality reduction process integrated to data mining. Its evaluation was conducted using technical measures together with measures of interest to the educational domain. This approach made it possible to identify actions, as well as to analyze their viability, to solve educational issues. The methodology, guided by the area of application and the evaluation of which is not restricted to the use of technical metrics of data mining, can serve as a reference – a proof of concept – for other studies of educational actions and policies.

Based on the fact that the majority of vacancies in higher education is mainly in private schools in Brazil, this study aims to identify the profiles of the beneficiaries of the program University for All (ProUni). It considers three courses: Pedagogy, Medicine and Law. The research resource used was the evaluation of policies established in the field of public policies. The microdata collected, using the socio-educational questionnaire during the application of Enade between 2008 and 2013, were analyzed. These data allow us to conclude that ProUni has been successful in terms of its established goals of ensuring the access of poor young people coming from public schools, to higher education. However, the data also allow us to affirm that the program is limited in scope, since the differences identified among the benefitted students in the different courses suggest that there is a reiteration of the educational inequalities. 

The present study is a piece of a wider study that analyzes the Programa Nacional de Reestruturação e Aparelhagem da Rede Escolar Pública de Educação Infantil [National Restructuring and Equipping Program of the Early Childhood Public School Network] of the State of Rio de Janeiro. It focuses on the effects of this federal program   in one of its goals, which is to ensure access to nursery school and preschool with the construction of new facilities based on standard projects. The monitoring system of the National Education Development Fund was used to identify the projects completed. The School Census from the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira [Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Educacional Studies and Research] was used to compare the conditions of the network before and ten years after the program was implemented. Daycares were the greatest beneficiaries of this service, and the data suggest possible merits in establishing a reference for a minimum quality standard. However, the program was not always a determining factor in the expansion of the network of early childhood education.

This paper deals with an important program of the Brazilian federal government. The evaluation of public policies and programs has been identified in the literature as capable of developing governmental interventions and controlling their implementation. This recent experience of the internationalization of higher education in Brazil, demonstrated by the program described herein, despite presenting potential benefits, also points out deficiencies that need to be resolved. The results of this study, which obviously cannot be generalized to all benefits already distributed in Brazil, have shown the successful processes, as well as occasional failures, of the Programa Ciência sem Fronteiras [Science without Borders Program]. Although presenting typical limitations of qualitative studies, such as the reduced degree of reproducibility, this study stimulates the reflection and need for further studies on internationalization of higher education public programs in Brazil.

The article assesses the literacy and education levels of the youth and adult population of the city of São Paulo, it also analyses the evolution of school coverage regarding this educational mode and makes recommendations for the city’s educational policy. The data collection related to registration, dropout rates and performance of youth and adult students in the municipal network from 2014 to 2016, in addition to the data on illiteracy in the city, show that only a small part of the demand is met. Although there is a positive variety of forms of service, there is a large concentration in a single model. This means that we cannot effectively attract the diversity of subjects of the different regions of the city.

This paper discusses the concept of continuous evaluation, based on the evaluation experience of a higher education program from a public university. The program is not only an affirmative action, it is also a general education program and a new admission way to the undergraduate courses. Continuous evaluation represents innovation in conceptual and methodological terms, in the public policy area, as it proposes a process based on a policy. The analysis of the general education program provides two main contributions: a) the understanding of how to set up a continuous evaluation system; b) the management of the system. This highlights the continuous generation of subsidies for decision-making as well as the challenges that are being faced, which guarantee that the integration between evaluation and decision-making will continue to occur. 

This article analyzes the specific features of Special Education Service (AEE) in Brazil and its organization in the São Paulo state education system based on its implementation in a public school in the National Special Education Policy from the perspective of Inclusive Education. The study used a qualitative intervention approach in three phases: 1) observation of pedagogical practices in the AEE and in the regular classroom; 2) interviews with two teachers who collaborated with the study; and 3) intervention in the regular classroom through the Project Methodology. We concluded that the policy was being implemented in the context of special education; however, the segregation of school spaces hindered an inclusive and collaborative pedagogical work between the professionals involved. 

This study aimed to analyze the age-grade distortion of basic education students from the state of São Paulo, comparing the target population of special education (PAEE) to the others. The data were collected from the School Census, with a quota sample of students from 48 cities in São Paulo, in the historical period from 2008 to 2014, considering the student’s birth year and grade. In relation to the PAEE, the results showed a late entry into early childhood education, a much higher proportion of age-grade distortion concentrated already in the initial years of basic education, and a lack of evolution in these indicators along the historical series of the first seven years of the school inclusion policy. It can be concluded that there is a need to move forward so that, more than simply providing a desk in a regular classroom, the country can effectively ensure the right to education for the target population of special education and make its schools more inclusive.

This paper presents the results of qualitative research that aimed to evaluate the Programa Institucional de Bolsa de Iniciação à Docência [Teaching Initiation Scholarship Institutional Program] (Pibid), developed at a public university in the state of Paraná, Brazil, from 2010 to 2015. The study was conducted with recently graduated students who participated in the program for a period equal to or greater than one academic year. The theoretical framework is based on the evaluation of educational programs. Participation in Pibid, according to the recently graduated students, contributed significantly to learning how to teach, initial education and teaching performance. The study points out that the evaluation of educational programs focused on recently graduated students is necessary, although challenging, for the analysis of strengths and weaknesses as well as for the improvement of the program.

The main purpose of this article is to throw light on the pedagogical potential of educational programs’ evaluations with the intention of building capacity of evaluative thinking in social organizations and their teams. It presents the path of a civil society organization in the educational field and the analysis of the learnings generated by the process of evaluating one of its projects. It was based on the reflective and self-evaluative perceptions of the professionals involved and obtained using data collection from semi-structured individual and collective interviews. The evaluation process, which was conducted in an interactive and dialogical way, contributed to the expansion of the critical consciousness about the project, favoring the development of the evaluative reasoning of the participants, guiding them to thinking evaluation critically, autonomously and actively. In conclusion, the pedagogical potential of project evaluations, for the construction of an evaluative thinking in organizations, is broad but still little explored. 

In this article, we analyze the institutional self-assessment that integrates the Education Evaluation System of Niterói (SAEN) in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The aim is to discuss its constitution process in a context of centrality of evaluation policies, supporting it as a possibility for the schools to produce policies as production of meanings of evaluation beyond the logic of accountability, putting other meanings of quality in dispute. From post-structural contributions, we assume the understanding of the policies as the struggle for meaning, which occurs between tensions, negotiations, and translations. We conclude by arguing that the analytical experience allows us to propose centered and centralized evaluation policies that have gained prominence in the educational field.