The Science, Technology, and Society Approach in Large-Scale Assessments: An Examination of the National Student Performance Exam Questions

Abstract

The National Student Performance Examination (ENADE) was created to evaluate Higher Education, aiming to measure the performance and quality of courses offered by Brazilian institutions. Therefore, this article presents an analysis of the questions of the general component of ENADE, of the years 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2017, years in which the undergraduate courses were evaluated, verifying if these questions present the Science, Technology and Society Approach . This research constitutes documentary, descriptive and qualitative approach. For the categorization and analysis of the data, the content analysis was used. Eight questions were identified, including discursive and objective, which had a relationship with the Natural Sciences and STS Approach. The questions were organized in the following categories: “STS Questions” and “STS Questions for Contextualization”. The low incidence of “STS Questions” was observed, which can denote the conceptions of the social, political and curricular demands of the evaluation and the lack of clarity in the elaboration of the questions. Already, the “STS Questions for the Contextualization” have great potential, however, they need that the social theme that surround them are more relevant.