Ressignificações de concepções sobre a avaliação da aprendizagem em matemática na perspectiva formativa: vozes de professores em formação

Abstract

Learning assessment in Mathematics, historically marked by the centrality of written tests and by classificatory logics, remains one of the main challenges to the consolidation of more inclusive, dialogical, and formative pedagogical practices. Considering the recurrent lack of specific training on assessment throughout the initial and continuing education of teachers who teach Mathematics, this study aimed to analyze the re-significations of conceptions of learning assessment among teachers participating in the course Assessment of Learning and Mathematics Teaching, offered within the Graduate Program in Mathematics Education (PPGMAT) at the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR). This qualitative study, of an interpretative nature, was grounded in socioconstructivist perspectives and developed within a situated formative process. Eight Basic Education teachers participated in the research. Data were produced through records of activities carried out throughout the course, classroom observations, and individual semi-structured interviews conducted at the end of the formative trajectory, at a moment when participants had experienced formative conditions that enabled the explicit expression of conceptual shifts in their assessment understandings. Thematic content analysis identified three central analytical movements: (i) the initial predominance of traditional assessment conceptions, strongly associated with grading, measurement, and written tests; (ii) a process of re-signification, in which understandings of learning assessment as monitoring, diagnosis, mediation, and regulation of the learning process begin to take shape; and (iii) the emergence of tensions related to institutional demands, pedagogical time constraints, and school culture, which continues to value predominantly summative practices. The results indicate that changes in assessment conceptions occur gradually, in a situated manner, and are permeated by structural dilemmas. Nevertheless, they show that the investigated formative process significantly contributed to broadening teachers’ understanding of the role of error as an epistemological observable—relevant both to students’ learning and to teachers’ pedagogical reflection and decision-making—as well as of the importance of qualitative feedback and the diversification of assessment instruments. As an applied outcome, an Educational Product—the Framework for Formative Assessment in Mathematics—was developed. This framework systematizes principles, strategies, and practical guidelines aimed at teacher education, with the potential to support formative actions and to foster the transformation of learning assessment practices in Mathematics education.