TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ENGAGEMENT IN A SOCIOCONSTRUCTIVIST ASSESSMENT PARADIGM

Education has changed throughout time and, in accordance, so have the roles of teachers and students. The processes of teaching and learning moved from a traditional base (focused on teachers' and content knowledge) to a more active process where the role of the students is more dynamic. In this innovative context, learning is not a linear process but a (re)construction of knowledge. As such, it is necessary to (re)think the assessment process based in a socioconstructivist paradigm. The main goal of the research was to verify how primary and basic school teachers, working with students from 6 to 12 years, conceive and understand students' engagement in the assessment process.

Methodologically, the option was a mixed method research where the qualitative method and the quantitative methods were applied. The sample had 67 teachers (n=38 primary teachers; n=29 basic school teachers). The range age was from 24 to 61 years, and 83,6% teachers where female. To collect data, both interviews and a questionnaire were applied. A content analysis was performed to acquire information from the interviews and statistical procedures were done to analyse the questionnaires. Results show that teachers consider auto-assessment as a students' critical reflection where learning self-regulation is developed.

Practices of self-assessment occur more often than co-assessment and primary teachers practice processes self-assessment more systematically than basic school teachers. These results reinforce the need to improve the teaching and learning environments so as to give students a much better place for them to develop autonomy and responsibility to manage their learning process.