Abstracts - Earli

control. The French school also provides relevant concepts and methods for the modelling ofassessment situations, such as the one used to interview pupils with a view to stimulating selfregulativeand self-assessment procedures. In order to elicit the three teachers’ "assessmentculture" we implemented the methodology of triangulation which recommends the use of multipledata sources in order to overcome the biases that spring from a single datum. Three main findingsemerged from the discourse analysis of the teachers’ interviews, from the video-transcriptscollected during the implementation of their ICT project, and from the teachers’ paperassessments. First, while they belonged to the category of innovators in terms of teachingstrategies the teachers expressed traditional conceptions of assessment. Secondly, theirconceptions and practice of assessment were unstable, sometimes contradictory. Thirdly, the ICTmedium seemed to favour interactive assessment rather than retro-active evaluation. More finegraineddata processing and interpretations are underway.Assessment culture and teaching choices. Conceptions and practices at primary school.Teresa Grange, Universita della Valle d’Aosta, ItalyA recent educational reform in Italy, which also focuses on classroom assessment, has led to muchcriticism and debate, notably about training theories and underlying ideology, teachers’conceptions, practices and experiences. These points are fundamental, so as to consider an‘assessment culture’ which underpins the creation of didactic projects, formative interventions,decision-making, and school failure and success. In the light of reactions aroused by the reform,we conducted a survey in primary schools in Valle d’Aosta (Italy).The research focused on thefollowing aspects: Teachers’ attitudes regarding classroom assessment, teacher’s conceptionsabout the functions of assessment, and finally, concepts and tools used by teachers for assessmentpurposes. The aim of the survey is to investigate the relation between assessment culture andpractices in school settings. Our research was carried out in primary schools which represent thesystem level the most affected by the educational reform. A total of 50 teachers were interviewed,and they also filled a questionnaire of 75 items based on a Likert scale. The level of agreement ordisagreement expressed by the teachers emphasized various aspects of classroom assessment andthe different teaching practices related. Our results stress a non-homogenous assessment culture,even though we also identify significant trends, in particular that the function of assessment, firstsummative, appears to be detached from learning purposes. Teachers seem to grasp the complexityof classroom assessment, but we note a conceptual gap between assessment conceptions andteaching-learning practices.Culture and teachers’ assessment practices leading to grade retention decisions in three differentcountriesMarcel Crahay, University of Geneva, SwitzerlandGery Marcoux, University of Geneva, SwitzerlandIn numerous countries, teachers continue to perceive grade retention as effective, and persist inmaking decisions of pupils’ retention. This study aims at (1) analysing teachers’ pedagogicalbeliefs in relation to grade retention; (2) comparing teachers’ conceptions from three differentcountries - one of them, at two different moments. More precisely, two dimensions of theseconceptions will be the target of our analysis: factors influencing the decision-making favouring ornot favouring grade retention and attributions process of school failure causes. An inquiry byinterview was carried out with teachers from three different countries: Belgium (2004-2005),Switzerland (1994 and 2006) and Madagascar (2006). The same protocol was used four times. Theoriginality of our study is to focus on specific cases of grade retention. Teachers were interrogated– 58 –