Pelos 'jardins secretos' de duas escolas com populações estudantes semelhantes, mas com resultados académicos diferentes

There is a great scientific consensus about the centrality of the school, and in particular the teacher, on the quality of student learning, and teaching practices are a key part of student’s school success. However, the classroom is still one of the secret places of most schools, it is the secret garden, a place with (many) mysteries to unveil. Aware of the fact that the classroom is the heart of the school, we intend to understand how planning, implementation and monitoring of the teaching learning process is done and to identify the main teaching strategies and the type of work used in two schools with different academic results, but with contexts and similar student populations. Questionnaires were applied (teachers and students), observations of classes were done and semi-structured interviews (teachers), focus group (students) were implemented and the results of evaluation of the students of the 6th and 9th forms in the subjects of Portuguese and Mathematics were analysed. From the analysis and interpretation of the data it is possible to verify that the two schools present differences in the way in which they plan and materialize the teaching-learning process. In some respects, there is a contradiction between what the teachers say they do and what has been observed and/or perceived by the students, showing that the school is a mosaic of visions, perceptions and realities.