Evaluative conceptions in higher education business administration courses

Abstract

This study discusses students and professors' perceptions of learning assessment processes of Business Administration courses. Addressing such a process is justified because studies with the purpose of analyzing the learning evaluation process in Administration Courses are not abundant in the academic production. The research is of a qualitative nature. The data was collected by focus groups with students and semi structured interviews with professors of two Brazilian and two Portuguese educational institutions. The findings were analyzed based on Discourse Analysis. The results show that the Administration courses investigated are still oriented by an assessment whose main purpose is to classify the students. Not even when institutional norms foresee the use of a pedagogical evaluation that tends to be continuous, based on feedback and oriented for learning improvement; it was possible to identify references to evaluation practices of this nature. In these conditions, the need to reflect on the process of evaluation in business education emerged from the discourse of the protagonists, in view of the deliberate and systematic use of pedagogical assessment practices whose main purpose is to improve the quality of what students have to learn, therefore, their education.