Resumo

SOUSA, Clarilza Prado de; MARCONDES, Anamérica Prado  e  ACOSTA, Sandra Ferreira. Auto-Avaliação Institucional: uma discussão em processo. Est. Aval. Educ. [online]. 2008, vol.19, n.39, pp.29-47. ISSN 0103-6831.

This article discusses the guidelines, focus, dimensions and stages for the implementation of an institutional self-evaluation at a university in Brazil: the Pontifical Catholic University at Sao Paulo, PUC-SP. Its purpose is to make the university aware of its pedagogical project and to provide input into the improvement of its decision-making process so as to reaffirm its social identity and assume a formative evaluation perspective. The guidelines are based on the principle that unveiling a reality implies an active and ongoing process in which all actors are involved. This led to the option for in-depth cycles associated to participation and community validation. The direction of this study provided an interpretative construction incorporating the senses that the subjects attributed to reality, which gives it a psychosocial perspective of an evaluative approach. The first evaluative cycle - 2005/2006 - was conducted in three stages which, though distinct, complement each other: 1) Collective construction of the project; 2) Collective unveiling of the reality; and 3) Negotiated communication. Further, it proposes a continuation of this work for the 2007/2008 evaluative cycle, keeping to the principles of dissemination and propagation to allow for a broader comprehension of academic reality, aiming at its improvement.

Palavras-chave : Institutional Self-Evaluation; Evaluative Cycles; Validation.