THE EVALUATION PROCEDURES
Evaluation may be described as the process and result of collecting information on a student or class group which, in comparison to a reference, is aimed at taking decisions that affect situations of teaching that student or group. These decisions are based on achieving the forecast objectives or intentions.
Six forms of evaluation have been identified:
- Evaluation and promotion based on the Reform
. This involves acceptance of the most characteristic factors of evaluation in the educational reform implemented by the LOGSE. Greater importance is given to on-going evaluation, appraisal of the processes more than the results, evaluation of procedures and attitudes, to the scales of observation of the individual learning, to knowledge of the initial level of the students, to involvement by the family and to actual self-evaluation by the teaching staff. The evaluation tests also pay more attention to clarity of ideas, the ability to relate subjects, of synthesis, to solve problems, of verbal expression and creativity.
- Rationalist evaluation
. This is a viewpoint that concentrates more on technical models, assessing some innovative aspects. It is not considered to be of special interest to evaluate students while working on each one of the themes and its is based to a greater extent, to evaluate such learning, on the average level of the group. It considers that evaluation must concentrate on the conceptual contents and not on the attitudes, values and standards.
- Traditional evaluation
. Conventional examinations and tests are used to a greater extent to evaluate the students; it assesses the level of learning by the students against the text book or other syllabus materials. It also considers an initial and final examination it sufficient.
- Product evaluation
. This refers to evaluation by observation and analysis of the student work and notebooks, and to individual work in class or at home.
- Criteria evaluation and promotion
. This seems to agree better with the postulates of the educational reform as to evaluation and the criteria related to this set in the syllabus and emphasised as the most important in teaching practice, to assess the level of learning by each of the students, the objectives set in the planning, the criteria for evaluation and the promotion criteria agreed by the teaching staff board.
Evaluation thus forms a first level at which the contradictions between theoretical approaches and practical difficulties arise. This is the situation noted in this paper.
Theoretical acceptance of the principles of evaluation and promotion in ESO - criteria evaluation, team evaluation, consideration of concepts, procedures and values, functions and sense of the evaluation - have a global acceptance that must be classified positively by the teaching staff. However, there are a series of expressions of discontent as to the problems arising from application to the real situation. There is coexisting acceptance and explicit recognition of the formal difficulties involved in evaluation.
The problems the teachers note are, among others:
- Explicit teaching problems, such as:
- Approximate observation of a hypothetical drop in student performance.
- Lack of precision in the criteria for student evaluation and promotion.
- Lack of accessible, usual instruments to evaluate attitudes, standards and values.
- Ambiguity in the terms used to guide the teacher as to aspects to be considered in promotion. It is not easy to convert such formulas as "achieve the objectives of a cycle or course in global terms" to minimally operative factors.
- The repercussions noted as to automatic promotion, due to the legal requisite which is predominantly valued as negative.
- Organisational problems, such as:
- The confusing, protracted rules of assessment.
- The difficulties involved in the formal and bureaucratic complexity of the documentation to be filled in.
- The notable increase in the number of students to be evaluated. As the timetables of the groups are reduced, they have had the effect of extending the number of groups of students to be attended by each teacher to maintain the lecturing hours. Thus, the number of evaluations is increased.
- The difficulties in coordination between High Schools and Primary Schools which teach ESO.
To sum up, it seems that theoretical acceptance of the innovating approaches to evaluation do not have a clear correlation in modification of the modes and techniques to be evaluated.
Information has been obtained on the importance and use the teaching staff gives to and makes of, respectively, of four evaluation procedures. Observation is the most important procedure, way ahead of the rest. However, observation and written examinations perform the same purpose. One must point out that verbal examination rates very low and, thus, is scarcely used to evaluate the students (graph 8).

Graph 8. Importance and use of different procedures
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