Conference Program

Assessing learning is one of the most relevant and contested dimensions of teacher professionalism, as it is shaped by a structural tension between formative and summative functions (Brown, 2019). While the former acts as a regulatory device for teaching and learning, grounded in feedback, co-assessment, and metacognitive practices the latter primarily serves certification and selection purposes (Hattie & Timperley, 2012). International research has widely documented the effectiveness of formative strategies in supporting meaningful and lasting learning, while also highlighting the limitations of an exclusive or distorted use of summative assessment, including its implications for students’ motivation and well-being (Colasanti, 2022; Scipione & Zini, 2025). Despite this broad scientific consensus on the value of formative assessment (Heritage, 2010) many studies show that both teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom practices remain only partially aligned with this approach, often maintaining a strong connection with summative strategies (Brown, 2004; Pastore, 2020).

Against this theoretical background, the paper analyses data from the “IV insegnanti” survey in order to explore teachers’ declared assessment strategies in the light of two structuring dimensions of the profession: subject area and school level. The underlying assumption is that the combination of disciplinary domain and school level should not be regarded as a mere organizational background, but rather as a factor that shapes both teachers’ conceptions of assessment and their actual practices, thus contributing to the construction of specific assessment cultures.

The analysis focuses on three main areas: teachers’ sense of self-efficacy in assessment and their willingness to engage in professional development on this topic; the functions and purposes they attribute to assessment; and their declared practices, with particular attention to the tools they use, the criteria they adopt for student promotion, and the difficulties they encounter in assessment processes. Through a comparative and multivariate approach, the paper investigates whether, and to what extent, the imbalance between formative and summative functions takes different forms across subject areas (for example, humanities and language studies, scientific subjects, and technical-vocational fields) and across school levels, thereby redefining the relationship between assessment, teaching, and selection.

From this perspective, assessment strategies are not interpreted as a mere repertoire of techniques, but as the expression of pedagogical and cultural principles that orient the ways in which teachers assign value to learning and support, or at times constrain, students’ educational trajectories. The paper ultimately aims to provide empirical evidence on whether, and in which disciplinary and school contexts, practices more consistent with research on formative assessment are becoming consolidated.