A formação dos professores para a avaliação educacional: uma análise dos currículos dos cursos de pedagogia das universidades federais de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This study was conducted from within the Postgraduate Program in Education – a Professional Master's Degree at the Federal University of Lavras – MG – Brazil. The central theme of this study focused on preparing Pedagogy courses to enhance assessment practices within scholarly contexts. Assessments play a pivotal role in teaching practices and are intertwined with pedagogical activities across all levels and teaching methods. From early childhood education to higher education, assessments serve various functions, one of which is to support teachers in their work, while also providing educational researchers with data on student learning. This investigation sought to address the following question: Are teachers adequately prepared during their initial training courses to effectively engage in assessment practices? This question is justified, since teachers continuously evaluate students, whether via observations, assessment tools, analyses of everyday experiences, or situations encountered in the classroom, where both formal and informal assessment processes take place. The primary objective of this study was to identify and analyze the extent to which the specific competencies regarding assessments have been well integrated into initial teacher training in Early Childhood Education, and in the initial years of Elementary School. The specific objectives included: (i) Are Educational Assessments mandatory components of initial Pedagogy training program curricula?; (ii) How do the Pedagogical Political Projects (PPC) of these courses address Educational Assessments in their curricula?; and (iii) Considering the intrinsic role of assessments in teaching, are prospective teachers, who will work in Early Childhood Education and the early years of Elementary School, adequately prepared during their initial trainings to excel in this practice? The methodology relied heavily on documentary and bibliographical analyses to examine official documents for indications of how assessment trainings are taught in teacher training courses. Furthermore, this study determined if assessment trainings were included in the curricula of Pedagogy courses at ten selected Federal Universities in Minas Gerais, Brazil. When categorizing and organizing the information to systematize the data, certain categories were established for analysis, namely: assessment outlines in Pedagogical Political Projects; included subjects e.g., Methodology, Didactics, and evaluations; and the components of these disciplines, as they relate to assessments. The findings indicate that the pedagogical course projects that were analyzed do indeed incorporate educational assessments as specific, mandatory, and/or elective subjects. The theme of assessment was also identified in subjects that deal with Didactics, Teaching Methodologies, Practices, and those addressing pedagogical practices.