Challenge to assessment in distance learning: notes from a humanities teachers’ training in secondary school

Abstract

Since the beginning of Distance Learning (DaD) during the health emergency, student assessment has been one of the greatest problems for Italian teachers in high schools. During the school year 2020/2021, students and teachers have worked in DaD again. During a teachers’ training course, held by territorial training teams (EFT) for the National Digital School Plan (PNSD) in the Marche region, data was collected on the assessment methods adopted, to document the process of adaptation to the context and to get the new teachers’ training needs. The continuous assessment realized by digital tools was the subject of the course, addressed to secondary school humanities teachers. Points of positivity, in a still complex situation, have emerged in practicing effective and formative methods, according to educational pedagogical research, and in the perception of the challenge to assessment in DaD as an opportunity for professional development.