Abstract:

The formative assessment is an intentional, structured, systematic process involving the student in the collection and analysis of evidence about student learning processes, with a view to regulating the teaching and learning processes of different students, so as to create pedagogical conditions that enable them to learn comprehensively and deeply.

Given the importance of formative assessment for the quality of student learning and academic success, our goal was to characterise the evolution of Portuguese legislation on formative assessment in primary education from the early 1990s to the present day. It was in 1992 that formative assessment was decreed for the first time in Portugal as the main form of assessment in primary education. We also sought to verify the relationship between this legislation and what empirical research has allowed us to learn about the concepts and practices of this assessment in Portuguese primary education to date. To this end, we revisited all the legislation published by the Portuguese Ministry of Education during the aforementioned period and selected three relevant studies, by Barreira and Pinto (2005), Fernandes and Gaspar (2014), Pedrosa et al. (2022), which, based on master's and doctoral theses on formative assessment and a number of selected articles, allow us to understand the concepts and practices of formative assessment in Portuguese primary education.

It was in the context of a reform of the Portuguese education system, which began in the late 1980s, that formative assessment was decreed as the main form of assessment in Portuguese primary education. This measure has been maintained in successive regulations on the assessment of learning at this level of education to the present day. It was also found that these regulations have kept pace with theoretical developments in the field of formative assessment, with the current regulations prescribing the participation of students in that assessment, through self-assessment or peer assessment. Through descriptive and timely feedback provided to students, they are able to self-regulate their learning, thus becoming more autonomous and responsible for it.

Teachers' conceptions of formative assessment are in line with theoretical ideas and legislation published in Portugal. These teachers recognise the importance of formative assessment as an integrated practice, involving students and regulating teaching and learning processes, in order to create pedagogical conditions that promote quality learning and academic success. However, their practices differ from their conceptions and from the legislation in the field of formative assessment in primary education because they are neither structured nor systematic and do not significantly involve students. They have been carried out mainly through spontaneous observation of students during classes, tests and formative worksheets, whose analysis of the information obtained on students' learning, difficulties and errors leads to corrective measures of a retroactive nature.

Keywords:

Formative assessment, basic education, policies, practices, teacher's.