Easier said than done in the assessment of learning at the university: the convenience of assessing through authentic tasks

Abstract

The decisions that teachers make about assessment affects the quality of the learning outcome. This study aims to analyse which assessment strategies are used by teachers of the Initial teacher training programme for primary school at the University of Playa Ancha, which ones are considered more likely to display authentic tasks and the correspondence between those declared in the learning modules. The information was gathered through a check table and content analysis. The results show that although the evaluation strategies used by teachers are numerous and diverse in nature, a low percentage of them are likely to mobilize authentic tasks and that the conventional instrument more frequently used are tests with dichotomous response questions or múltiple choice. In the discussion, some lines of work are proposed to move in the direction of assessing through authentic tasks and to bring what is stated in the modules (what is said) closer to the evaluation activities used (what is done).