Abordagens de avaliação educacional: a constituição do campo teórico no cenário internacional

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical review of the main evaluation approaches that marked the trajectory of educational evaluation in the international scenario. This is a bibliographical research that, based on the assessment literature, aimed at studying the various dimensions and different meanings that have historically constituted the educational evaluation field. Seven evaluation approaches are described: goal-based evaluation, evaluation based on scientific logic, value-based evaluation, decision-making evaluation, consumer-oriented evaluation, participant-centered evaluation, and qualitative evaluation. Each one of them is characterized according to its protagonists, objectives, conceptual approaches, theoretical orientations deriving from methodological assumptions, and the scholars who continued their respective approaches. Such international literature had a strong influence on Brazilian evaluation researchers who, based on these references, sought to support a field of knowledge that is still in the process of constitution and strengthening in our country.