TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF LEARNING ASSESSMENT IN THE CYCLE SYSTEM: MEANINGS, TENSIONS, AND PRACTICES

Abstract

School organization in cycles repositions learning assessment by shifting it from a punctual act of verification to an ongoing practice of monitoring, interpreting, and pedagogical intervention, which requires revising criteria, instruments, and purposes in dialogue with differentiated learning times and the demand to guarantee less exclusionary school trajectories. By focusing on teachers’ conceptions of “assessing” within the cycle system, this article discusses how teachers assign meaning to assessment, which tensions emerge between expectations of control and the need to regulate learning, and how records, feedback, and pedagogical decisions are reorganized under institutional pressures and social demands for results. It argues that assessment, when coherent with the logic of cycles, tends to value processes, diversified evidence, and timely interventions, yet it faces recurring dilemmas linked to school culture, bureaucratization, and the persistence of graded imaginaries that call for retention and classification.