Évaluation orientée vers la maîtrise ou évaluation orientée vers la performance ? Des contextes qui régulent les performances des élèves lors d’un apprentissage

Abstract

Background: The starting point for this study is the recurrent debate surrounding pupil assessment at school. This debate highlights the differences in the ways pupil achievement is impacted by the context. Aims and Sample: Our study focuses on the effects different evaluative contexts (performance oriented versus mastery oriented contexts) shave on learning for some 4th grade students. Methods: All the pupils take part in a learning sequence, during which they are allowed five tries at reproducing a geometric figure. Some pupils work in a performance-oriented assessment context, whereas others work in a mastery-oriented assessment context Results: The results show that the pupils in the performance- oriented assessment context do not get such good results and do not learn as fast as the pupils in the mastery- oriented assessment context. The longer the pupils are exposed to these different contexts, the greater these effects. Conclusions: Our discussion of these findings aims to show how they can be applied: it is suggested that the discussions which often focus on the evaluative procedures themselves should focus to considering the classroom climates in which assessments are carried out.

Keywords

• evaluation
• context
• performance goals
• mastery goals
• performance
• assessment