The process of evaluation in a scholastic environment: An explorative inquiry on teaching and evaluative beliefs and practices held by a group of primary school teachers

Abstract

For decades, school assessment has been at the core of the debate in psycho- pedagogical literature: in fact, it is still regarded as an important tool for the promotion of students’ educational achievement. However, this remarkable scientific production on the importance of training evaluation as means to promote effective learning on behalf of students does not reflect an analogously rich literature aimed at providing workers with means to put
formative and evaluative practices into use. In which way do teachers assess their students? This research question is the object of the present paper, which aims to explore through an empirical analysis the mental representations that teachers have on evaluation. Thanks to an understanding of evaluation practice currently in use, this research is able to produce useful inferences that may help improving such practices, procedures and formative processes—within the frame of a transformative perspective.