Representações e prática avaliativa no ensino de língua portuguesa na educação de jovens e adultos: um estudo de caso

Abstract

This research was developed from the standpoint of Applied Linguistics. The general objective was to investigate, identify and analyze representations of learning assessment in Brazilian Portuguese classes produced both by students in the senior year of high school who attended a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) classes and their teacher in a public state school in Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Such investigation also aimed at understanding the development of assessment practices in the investigated context, observing the concepts of formative, summative and diagnostic assessment. This research is a case study and it was based on concepts of André (2001) and Chizzoti (1991). The utterance analysis was developed according to Bronckart’s Sociodiscursive Interactionism theory (1997,1999,2003, 2006, 2007,2008,2009). Data collection tools were: questionnaires, transcribed interviews with students and teacher, field notes collected during the classes and evaluations performed in the investigated context. The discussions about theory and Applied Linguistics were based on Moita Lopes (1996) and Celani (1998), and the discussions on assessment were based on Depresbiteris (1989), Lussier and Turner (1995), Libâneo (1994), Luckesi (2002/2008), Hadji (2001), Perrenoud (1991), Haydt (1991), Cardinet (1986). Among the representations built by the students are: assessment as a synonym of test, grades as a parameter of success or failure, and negative feelings towards assessment. The representations built by the teacher are: the use of texts as a possible diagnostic assessment, the use of structured exercises as the tool that best assesses students, normative grammar as being essential for GED students and valuing grades as the main parameter for success or failure. Regarding the assessment practices, it is possible to understand that assessment activities are almost entirely developed based on the grades obtained from tests containing structured exercises that evaluate normative grammar nomenclature.