This research addresses part of a larger problem of self-evaluation in initial nurses’ and teachers’ training. The importance that is accorded to self-evaluation in the institutional environment is explored with an attempt at identifying a possible common culture. The consequences of contextual influences on trainers’ conceptions and practices of self-evaluation are examined. The study highlights the nature of the didactic contract – explicit or implicit – present during the selfevaluation process with the purpose of analyzing the existing links between the organization of this contract and trainers’ personal conception of self-evaluation as well as their awareness of the possible paradoxical communication.