The development of professional competencies by practicing teachers: learning assessment

In the context of the implementation of secondary-level competency programs in Quebec, we analyze the process of building professional knowledge among adult-education teachers as part of a collaborative research-training that lasted 2 years and was exclusively focused on developing the professional competency of learning assessment. The teachers were invited to take training to teach their peers. Once the project was finished, through the analysis of content drawn from exchanges that took place during four out of a total of twenty-seven days of training, we conducted a study to identify mechanisms through which participants attributed a value to the training knowledge. The study revealed the trouble teachers had building professional reference knowledge, while the knowledge that came from their experience had greater credibility and legitimacy than the knowledge built in a training space. This observation led us to question conditions practicing teachers require for the development of professional competencies.