Assessment beliefs and practices in primary school Mathematics education in Brazil

Abstract

To gain further knowledge about how Brazilian primary school teachers perform and conceive assessment in mathematics education, we carried out an updated review of research literature on assessment in Brazil. Our scope on assessment was broad and included both large-scale assessment and classroom assessment. The research question was: What does recent research reveal about Brazilian primary school mathematics assessment practices and teachers’ beliefs? The review covered publications between 2010 and 2017 in proceedings of Brazilian scientific conferences and in the national database of PhD theses and master dissertations. Large-scale assessments influence changes in the school curriculum, such as adding content or emphasizing particular content. Teachers feel controlled and evaluated by external assessments. When comparing assessment practices with assessment beliefs, we can see a mismatch between what is done and what Brazilian primary schoolteachers think. The teachers mostly believe classroom assessment to be a process that occurs in many moments at classroom and use different instruments. Nevertheless, the most used practices are testing students at the end of a school