When evaluation comes as a topic for discussion it is common to hear teachers, principals and pedagogical coordinators refer to evaluation tests as "instruments that help direct and redirect the pedagogical practice". They state "that via the application of tests" it is possible "to diagnose" the students' "difficulties", their learning "problems", what topics "they could not learn" and the kind of "medication" that should be administered in order to cause them "to recover". All these terms are originally found in the medical discourse to refer to medical situations, illnesses, but they have been largely used in the educational discourse as well. The objective of this study is to reflect on how such terms migrated to the educational environment and what their effects are.
evaluation; diagnosis; discourse
