Teacher training and evaluation of learning: an analysis of the relationship between experiences and the practices adopted by math teachers in the early years

Abstract

This qualitative research developed by the program graduate education in the FCT / UNESP / Campus President Prudente-SP, in the search line Formative Processes and Practices in Education, aims to investigate assessment practices of teachers in the early years elementary school in view of the recommendations in the area of mathematics education in the present research and education policy documents. We conducted a survey in which it was possible to see the small number of studies on Assessment in Mathematics in the early years. Among 1,396 papers published in the proceedings of events ANPEd (2000-2011), ENEM (2007 and 2010) and SIPEM (2009 and 2012), only 12 were connected with the subject. A similar situation occurs in research Masters and PhD (2000-2009), available on the website of CAPES: from 71 evaluation studies in mathematics only 15 discussed the issue in the context of the early years, but few have analyzed the assessment practices in the context of the room class, which is relevant to the proposed research. After surveying the research on assessment in mathematics, data collection in the field, was done in two phases: the first involved the application of a questionnaire to teachers in the 5th year of the municipal Presidente Prudente (19 teachers), the second involved interviews and observation of classes by two teachers. The data were analyzed in the light of the theory of content analysis of Bardin, with which we seek to understand what the current recommendations for teaching mathematics based on documents and recent research, what the teachers think about the way assess their students, which mathematical contents which are taught and didactic approaches in selected classes, and disagreements which exist in relation to the recommendations of the area and how assessments are developed in the context of the classroom. The results indicate some similarities and differences with respect to the recommendations of the Mathematics Education and teaching practices and assessment in the discipline of mathematics. We note that the external evaluations and textbooks strongly influence teaching practiced in the classroom. We believe that research can contribute to the reflection on the evaluation practices constituted from the possible influence exerted by the educational policy documents, the current trends in mathematics education, as well as arrays of reference adopted by the external evaluations and present in textbooks. (AU)