Affects on learning assessment:

contradictions in the transition from face-to-face to virtual teaching

Abstract

This article discusses the formation of a conception of learning assessment based on a meritocratic logic and the possibilities for overcoming it, through a study conducted on remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective is to analyze the affects experienced by a higher education professor regarding student learning assessment and the need for changes during online remote teaching, in order to understand their mediations. The research is grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, the historical cultural approach, and Spinozist theory. It analyzes the professor's language manifestations through a semantic system in order to reveal historical and social determinations. The data were produced in a doctoral study, based on interviews conducted in a focus group. The results confirm that the affective dimension is intrinsic to pedagogical activity, forming an amalgam with the cognitive dimension. The case analyzed highlights the persistence of an exam-centered pedagogy, supported by traditional conceptions of assessment. The data reveal the predominance of evaluation practices focused on tests and metrics, as well as the challenges faced in overcoming them. The need for change generated tensions and uncertainties, exposing the conflict between the professor's conception of assessment and that proposed by the institution, which led to distrust in its effectiveness. It is revealed that formative experiences and professional trajectories contribute to putting conceptions into motion. Dialogue about assessment emerges as a possibility for reflection on this process, becoming a resource that, alongside others, contributes to the qualification of learning assessment conceptions.