Assessment in Supervision: a dialogue at different voices?

Abstract

Teacher education in general, and initial teacher education in particular, has been the object of study and reforms internationally, given the importance that teachers play in ensuring the quality of educational systems and, consequently, the development of the countries. Pedagogical supervision is one of the structuring axes of the education of (future) teachers, due to the dialogical relationship between theory and practice, which the scenarios of educational actions must assume. Pedagogical supervision necessarily includes future teachers’ evaluation. However, evaluation and assessment, from the conceptual and praxiological point of view, has a remarkable complexity taking into account, for example, the diversity of perspectives regarding its nature, purposes, functions and procedures. In this alignment, this article focuses on educational evaluation and assessment in the supervision context of future teachers, aiming to answer the following question: how can evaluation and assessment enhance the supervision process within the scope of Initial Teacher Education/ITE? To answer this question, the voices of different actors will be mobilized, including the one that comes from the professional experience of the author of this article, as well as those of studies carried out in Portugal and in other countries, predominantly those of the Lusophony. The answer to the above question is achieved through the following objectives: i) to systematize, framed on theory, the concepts of evaluation and assessment, supervision and their articulations; ii) to list trends and challenges regarding the roles of supervison evaluation in ITE; iii) to propose concrete recommendations that enhance supervison processes through evaluation and assessment; and iv) to suggest studies that can enrich these recommendations.