A Review of the Application of Process Evaluation in Junior High School English Teaching under “Double Reduction” ()
1. Introduction
On July 24, 2021, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Compulsory Education on Students and the Burden of Out-of-School Training, so the core of the “Double Reduction” policy is to “reduce the burden”, increase the efficiency, and improve the quality. By reducing the excessive burden of homework on students, the “Double Reduction” will shift the evaluation of students from the previous evaluation emphasizing mechanical memorization and repetitive training to the evaluation of students’ ability. So the “Double Reduction” requires that education evaluation needs to be improved accordingly. The goal of education evaluation reform is to reverse the unscientific and irrational education evaluation orientation, change the situation of score theory, form a correct and scientific concept of success, and cultivate moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic development of young people. Therefore the reform of education evaluation is conducive to the real implementation of the policy of “Double Reduction”.
The reform of education evaluation should make a corresponding response, return to education itself, and shift from result evaluation to process evaluation, which is a crucial part of the reform process. However, at present, there are still many problems in the process evaluation of junior high school English teaching. For example, the method of evaluation means is relatively single, and also the evaluation content and subject is a little. Therefore, this paper will discuss how to improve the process evaluation, better utilize the function of process evaluation and really help the landing of “Double Reduction”.
2. The “Double Reduction” Policy
After the emergence of the policy, it quickly led to a wide range of discussions in society, and its impact on schools and education and training institutions is extensive and in-depth. The “Double Reduction” policy is not a reduction for the sake of reducing the burden, nor is it an “explicit reduction and implicit increase” as some people say, but is an important link and a key step in the strategic layout of China’s realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Zhang believes that the “Double Reduction” is a major reform in the field of basic education in China [1] . It is a systematic, in-depth and long-lasting reform that is different from any other education and teaching reforms in the past. The governance of training institutions is only the shallow layer of this reform and the ultimate starting point of the reform is still in school education. That requires all educators to innovate the concept of education and teaching, optimise the daily management of schools, and improve the quality of school services in order to provide a richer range of educational products to meet the people’s needs for a better educational life. The “Double Reduction” is a “small incision” to pry the big change and adjustment of national basic education by reducing the burden of students. Jia believes that the “double-reduction” reform is reshaping the new pattern of educational equity, which can be achieved through three aspects: after-school homework, after-school interest classes and home-school cooperation [2] . Xiong believes that in order to make the “Double Reduction” to achieve substantial results, we must solve two “hard bones”. One is the “hard bones” of the reform of the college entrance examination, and the other is the “hard bones” of the abolition of the hierarchy of education [3] . Ma believes that the essence of the “Double Reduction” puts forward higher requirements for education, not only to reduce the burden of homework on students. especially for teachers. He believes that after the “Double Reduction”, teachers need to establish the concept of inner development, reverse the evaluation method that only focuses on scores and promotion, and pay more attention to the development of students’ personality by emphasising growth rather than success and process [4] .
Through the combing of the above literature, we understand the “double-reducing” policy from many angles, and have a deeper understanding of the “double-reducing” policy, which has a certain role in promoting the development of this study.
3. Process Evaluation
Process evaluation is an evaluation paradigm that has been gradually formed since the 1980s. There are mainly three types of views on process evaluation: the first view is that process evaluation based on the observation of the whole process of students, focusing on the development of students; the second view is that process evaluation is based on the process of students’ learning, the evaluation of their emotions, attitudes and values, which is mainly carried out through the semester’s growth portfolio of students; the third view is that process evaluation is mainly the evaluation of teaching activities, through which timely adjustments and feedbacks are made to finally achieve the teaching purpose.
Gipps believes that the process evaluation of students’ achievement or performance is conducive to the shaping and improvement of students’ learning ability [5] , and Cowie and Bell define process evaluation as “a collaborative learning process in which teachers and students work together” [6] . And from the cognitive aspect of students, process evaluation needs to evaluate students’ thinking process, and also includes the way teachers evaluate students’ personal behaviours, attitudes and other aspects.
Li mentioned that not only examining the mastery of students’ knowledge, but also attaching importance to the learning process and experience from the aspect of the content of the evaluation [7] . Xie and Li believe that process evaluation is a step-by-step process that attaches importance to the participation of learners and the cognitive construction of the value of learners and their learning activities [8] . Zheng puts forward that process evaluation and summative evaluation is different from the role of evaluation [9] . This evaluation uses the students’ self-assessment to achieve the purpose of introspection, through the peer assessment to achieve the purpose. Gao analyses and summarizes the concept of process evaluation proposed in domestic research, arguing that process evaluation is not a cognitive evaluation of the micro process of student learning, nor is it an evaluation that focuses only on the process of learning but on the results [10] . It is an integrated evaluation of the motivation, process and effect of student learning, and advocates the use of internal and external combination, open and diversified evaluation methods.
Comprehensive researchers on the definition of process evaluation, it can be found that these contents focus on the process evaluation is based on the learning process of students to carry out a kind of evaluation, which focus on the growth, development and comprehensive quality of students. And therefore It is conducive to the achievement of the overall development of students.
4. Process Evaluation in the Context of “Double Reduction”
The “double-reducing” policy reduces the excessive academic burden on students, but in essence, it aims to improve the “quality” of learning, and ultimately to achieve the goal of students’ all-round development. The realization of this process requires the promotion of the corresponding education evaluation reform. However, there are many problems with the evaluation of primary and secondary school teaching, so how to reform the education evaluation will be an important step in the real implementation of the “Double Reduction” policy.
Dong believes that the orientation of schooling is formed on the basis of educational evaluation, so it is necessary to firmly grasp the reform of educational evaluation as the source of the problem [11] . He believes that in order to deepen the education evaluation reform, the key is to do the following four steps: firstly, strengthen the comprehensive evaluation to highlight the quality orientation; secondly, pay attention to the process evaluation to improve the teaching effect; thirdly, improve the examination evaluation to relieve students’ pressure; and lastly, explore the value-added evaluation to stimulate the motivation of learning. Process evaluation should strengthen the observation of students’ classroom, improve the student growth file and other ways to improve the teaching tracking mechanism, so as to improve the teaching effect.
Luo also holds a similar view, in order to achieve the goal of “double-decrease” to reduce the burden and increase efficiency, and it should make full use of this evaluation in the diagnosis of the learning and teaching situation [12] . The role of process evaluation can be improved through the following three aspects: first, the evaluation tasks should be diversified, such as some open tasks with real situations can be designed; secondly, the evaluation information should be fully used to promote students’ learning, which requires teachers to implement some high-quality feedback, and attention needs to be paid to the content, quantity, form and way of feedback. Finally, students should be guided to gradually and consciously form self-assessment, in which teachers should play a guiding role to make students clear about the following three basic questions: where am I going, where am I currently, and how do I get to there.
In Henan, Binying Middle School tries to embed evaluation into the whole process of students’ learning and growth [13] . To this end, the school has established a process evaluation file for each subject, and every week the classroom teachers give ABC grade ratings based on the students’ listening status and homework completion. At the end of each month, the classroom teacher, together with other teachers, the subject leader tally the scores and add the value-added evaluation points in the previous period and the daily performance points, and carry out the process evaluation of the students.
Liu proposed to establish a student-oriented evaluation system that combines students’ self-evaluation and peer evaluation, and to provide students with evaluation models; secondly, use diversified, personalized and targeted feedback. the core of the evaluation is feedback, so teachers need to provide students with clear and effective feedback; lastly, in process ormative evaluation, we also need to cultivate students’ self-regulation of learning [14] . The process evaluation is a dynamic process of change, and we cannot only focus on the short-term effectiveness of the learning in the immediate future.
5. Process Evaluation in English Language Teaching in the Context of “Double Reduction”
In order to implement the requirements of “Double Reduction”, not only should we improve the curriculum construction, but also make corresponding adjustments in the evaluation mechanism.
Liu believes that the evaluation of English teaching that matches the “double-reduction” should follow the concept of disciplinary education. And give full play to the role of evaluation in promoting learning and education through the evaluation objectives, evaluation subjects, evaluation tools and information technology [15] . He thinks that in order to implement the concept of people-oriented education and the need to improve the quality of education, the evaluation method in teaching English should be innovated, and the process evaluation strategy of habitual plus practical can be adopted. Lian believes that the process evaluation practice in primary school English can be directed to a growth-oriented thinking model, that is, through different forms of feedback to provide students with specific help and guidance [16] . In colleges and universities, process evaluation is mostly combined with other teaching forms or tools. Taking college English teaching in higher vocational colleges as an example, Liang believes that the task-based teaching mode can be organically integrated with process evaluation [17] . And that the integration has a huge advantage in that it can continuously return the information, which can give full play to the respective driving roles of the two and thus promote the qualitative development of English learning. On the other hand, Hao uses data mining as a technology to analyze and explore the process evaluation system in college English [18] . Through a series of steps such as selecting data, processing data, piecing together and assembling data, mining and extracting data to arrive at the evaluation, then the study shows that the process evaluation through this process becomes more scientific, objective and comprehensive. For minority students majoring in English in applied colleges and universities, Jing constructed a process evaluation model, which was carried out through four modules: classroom evaluation, offline evaluation after class, online evaluation after class, and e-portfolio evaluation [19] .
In foreign countries, research on process evaluation never stops. These researches are mainly divided into two categories, the first one is to study the problems encountered in the implementation of process assessment through investigation, and the second one is to improve students’ English proficiency through a variety of specific process assessment implementation means. Yastibas explores whether e-portfolio-based learning assessment can improve students’ independent learning ability. The study showed that e-portfolio-based assessment can promote students’ self-directed learning in English language teaching [20] . Graney introduced process assessment in a high school English reading flipped classroom. Keezhatta (2020) found that role-playing had a significant impact on peocess assessment [21] .
However, there are certain problems in the implementation of process evaluation. Cao shows three dilemmas of process evaluation in actual teaching practice: firstly, the purpose of process evaluation is more fragmented; secondly, the standard of process evaluation is more vague; and thirdly, the conduct of process evaluation is more interrupted [22] . Li suggests that there are five major problems in process evaluation: blurring of evaluation objectives, formalization of the evaluation process, fragmentation of evaluation methods, evidence-based evaluation materials and low-value evaluation effects [23] .
To sum up, although the scholars have different methods and strategies in the application of process assessment and achieved different results, the general goal is the same, that is, to improve students’ English proficiency.
6. Conclusions
Scholars at home and abroad have undoubtedly achieved fruitful successes in the field of process evaluation research, and these research successes have important implications for English teaching. At the same time, since it is in the relatively new research background of “Double Reduction”, there are also some issues that need to be further explored.
1) Since the “Double Reduction” policy was announced and implemented in July 2021, the related implementation measures are still being explored. Although domestic scholars have conducted some studies, they have not focused on specific issues because they have analyzed the policy from a macro level. Therefore, the various methods and recommendations have not yet met the needs of solving the specific problems arising in the implementation process. There is still a certain gap between the needs of the problems, and it is difficult to operate in practice.
2) With China’s educational evaluation system teaching reforms continue to deepen, process evaluation is gradually brought to the forefront of evaluation methods. Researchers have launched a systematic study of process evaluation and achieved some results. But in the actual teaching practice of the English classroom, there is no unified set of process evaluation methods and content for the time being, which leaves a large space for further research on process evaluation.
3) Many scholars in China have paid attention to the application of process evaluation in English teaching, and achieved fruitful research results. Although the empirical research occupies a certain proportion, on the whole it is still mostly theoretical research, and there are more experience summaries, which are mostly summaries of the experiences of front-line teachers.
In conclusion, under the background of “Double Reduction”, perfecting process evaluation is an important strategy to achieve the goal of improving the “quality” of learning, only by exploring effective strategies for the application of process evaluation in English teaching can we better guide the practice of English teaching and thus truly implement the “Double Reduction” policy.