Vinte anos de avaliação das aprendizagens: Uma síntese interpretativa de artigos publicados em Portugal

Abstract

This paper is an interpretative synthesis based upon the content of the articles on learning assessment that were published in Portuguese academic journals between 1985 and 2005. Nineteen journals have been identified and 59 articles have been selected and organized through the use of categories such as Internal Assessment, Teachers’ and Students’ Beliefs and Practices, and Methods and Techniques. Both the analysis and the interpretative synthesis yielded conclusions such as: a) since only 35% of the articles were based upon empirical data it seems that there is a need for a research agenda in the area of learning assessment; b) most articles are of a descriptive and prescriptive nature, that is, they seem to rely more on what exists or on what is done rather than on theoretical reflection; c) very few articles deal with some sort of reflection about alternative methods of collecting assessment information; and d) in general, both formative and summative assessment as well as the relationships between them are discussed with little theoretical elaboration Regardless the progresses already made, one needs to acknowledge the limitations that characterize both the empirical research and the theoretical construction on learning assessment. And this is a domain of paramount relevance if one wants to transform and to improve the current educational realities.