Diagnostic assessment in CAP Classrooms: A retrospective analysis of the contributions of participatory research

Abstract

Faced with students who accumulate forms of vulnerability, those involved in vocational high schools (VHS) are devising innovative educational systems, particularly for assessment. This participatory, multi-disciplinary research project on the teaching of English in vocational training is structured around two axes: 1) the unthought of diagnostic assessment as a boundary object ; 2) the evaluation of the effects of participatory research on the members of the collective (teachers, inspectors, researchers). A qualitative methodology of data collection and content analysis was used. The results show an expressed need to (re)mobilize stakeholders (teachers and students), partly through interactions between teachers, as well as with researchers, around assessment practices. Teachers verbalize their professional development thanks to time spent cooperating on the boundary object. Valuations emerge both through research and through the co-design of assessment, within a multi-category community of practice.