Portuguese teachers' beliefs on assessment and grade repetition

• Autor(a) principal: Cipriano, Gabriel
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/18817
• topic: Assessment; Teacher beliefs and practices; Teacher decision-making; Grade repetition; Sociologia da educação; Insucesso escolar; Professor; Crença -- Belief; Avaliação do rendimento escolar -- Assessment of school performance; Portugal

Grade repetition has commonly been used in Portuguese schools as a form of intervention for students that have been evaluated as a low achievers. With grade repetition being used so frequently, it is necessary to reflect as to whether it is being used appropriately. Hence, the present research aims to understand what are the perceptions that teachers have about assessment, what they believe are the purposes of assessment in compulsory school, and whether their beliefs about assessment are in line with the guidelines on national education policy. Moreover, it also aims to understand why Portuguese teachers use grade repetition as a common resource when it is not scientifically recommended, it finds no support as the best procedure in national educational policy and it is not cheaper when compared with other more efficient solutions. With evidence that suggests that Portuguese teachers are underassessing their students, or at least they are doing so with criteria different from teachers in other countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), it is important to understand if the Portuguese teachers’ assessment criteria are suited to their students and how Portuguese teachers perceive new approaches. To do so, a focus group was created and a survey carried out of a representative sample of Portuguese teachers’ population, with a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of 2.3%. These procedures led to the conclusion that Portuguese teachers have personal beliefs towards assessment and grade repetition that interfere with the assessment they make on their students. The respective beliefs and conceptions have an impact on their practice and succeed in superimposing themselves on national educational policies, educational laws and scientific recommendations.