Η ΑΞΙΟΛΟΓΗΣΗ ΣΤΑ ΜΑΘΗΜΑΤΙΚΑ: ΟΨΕΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΝΟΗΜΑΤΟΔΟΤΗΣΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΤΙΚΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΒΑΘΜΙΑΣ ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΣΗΣ

Abstract

The present study deals with the way primary school teachers conceptualize pupils’ assessment in mathematics and it develops on two levels. On the fi rst, that of the teachers’ community, it attempts to depict the main characteristics of this conceptualization, recognizing the essential role played by the professional apprenticeship in its formation. On the second level, considering pupils’ work assessment by the teacher as a particularly social but also subjective process, the study examines the pedagogical discourse of individual teachers, concentrating on the resources they draw on and the positions they adopt within this discourse with respect to assessing. For the purposes of the present study, the responses of 553 teachers to specifi c questions of a questionnaire (fi rst level) as well as the responses of a certain teacher to the questions of an interview (second level) were analyzed utilizing the Correspondance Analysis and the Hierarchical cluster analysis, as well as techniques of the Grounded Theory and the Systemic Analysis respectively. The results indicate the function of three mainly factors on teachers’ conceptualization of pupils’ assessment in mathematics: the teaching practice, the institutional framework and their personal and professional relationship with the subject matter. The way in which these three factors act and interact, as well as the effect of this action on the conceptualization of the assessment process differs from teacher to teacher. This is due to a number of social parameters and mechanisms which result to the co-existence of contradictory conceptualizations not only on micro but also on macro level.