Application of Multiple Evaluation in Art Classroom Teaching in Rural Primary Schools

Haishan ZHU, Liping LIANG

College of Fine Arts, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China

Abstract With the reform and development of China’s primary school art education, the art teaching activities have obtained constant improvement, and the multiple evaluation of art teaching plays an important role in the process of art teaching. Based on the current situation of the evaluation of art classroom teaching in rural primary schools, this article uses diversified evaluation methods, multi-dimensional evaluation subjects and multiple evaluation contents to change the traditional and single primary art classroom evaluation method, to strive to improve the quality of art classroom teaching and stimulate students’ learning interests and adapt to the development needs of students with different personalities.

Key words Multiple evaluation, Art in rural primary schools, Classroom teaching

1 Introduction

As an important part of compulsory education, art of rural primary school is an important means of inheriting the traditional culture and art of the Chinese nation. It is favorable for improving students’ aesthetic cognition and aesthetic ability, helpful for the development of students’ innovative spirit and innovative thinking, and conducive to the formation of students’ personality and healthy growth. As indicated in the new curriculum standard, the evaluation of art classroom teaching is an important link to promote the overall development of students, improve the teaching of teachers, and promote the continuous development of art classrooms[1]. Multiple evaluation plays an indispensable role in art education in rural primary schools, because it not only cares about the level of students’ learning, but also pays attention to the emotions and attitudes displayed by students in the learning process, and helping students improve themselves and build self-confidence.

2 Multiple evaluation method

Since the 1990s, the multiple evaluation method has become the direction of the development of teaching evaluation in the United States and the world, and has been widely applied in the field of practical teaching. The multiple evaluation focuses on the future development of people, stimulating people’s intrinsic interest, motivation and will attitude, exploring intelligence, cultivating innovative spirit and innovative ability, to achieve the purpose of improving work and learning efficiency through human development and improvement[2]. It advocates that students, teachers and more people become the main body of evaluation, not just limited to teachers. The multiple evaluation focuses on the real-time dynamic process of education and related information, adheres to the combination of objective evaluation and subjective evaluation, and attaches importance to the cultivation of students’ personality and differences. It not merely focuses on the level and ranking of students’ art level, but also cares about the progress and development of students’ aesthetic level, and the development and play of their creative potential. In other words, the multiple evaluation considers the comprehensive evaluation of students, to help students recognize themselves and improve themselves. Therefore, in the evaluation of art teaching, teachers should start from the benefit of the development of students, and take diversified evaluation methods to effectively enhance students’ sense of identification with the evaluation process, thereby enhancing students’ self-understanding.

3 Current situation of art teaching in rural primary schools

Through interviews, we surveyed the evaluation of art teaching in three rural primary schools. Compared with urban primary schools, they are quite different in terms of teaching resources, teaching facilities, and teaching staff, but the difference in teaching evaluation is not large, which is closely connected with the teaching evaluation philosophy of art teachers.

3.1 Traditional teaching evaluation methodsArt teaching evaluation in urban primary schools can use methods such as practical evaluation and oral evaluation to stimulate students’ interest in learning, while the teaching evaluation method of art classrooms in rural primary schools is relatively simple. However, both of them only pay attention to the final result of students’ art work and ignore the performance of students in the learning process. This will easily curb students’ desire to paint, accordingly make students lose confidence in art prematurely and reduce their overall creative level. Most of the art classrooms are taught by copying a model of painting, which greatly reduces the development of students’ imagination and creativity, leading to inert thinking of students. Besides, it leads to poor atmosphere of the art classroom and low student participation, accordingly leading to decline of the teaching effect.

3.2 Single subject of teaching evaluationIn rural primary schools, the subject of art classroom teaching evaluation is mostly teachers, and students rarely have the opportunity to participate in self-evaluation and mutual evaluation. Besides, teachers do not use the evaluation words reasonably when evaluating teaching. For example, the evaluation words should not be imperative, mandatory, or vague, "good", "very good" and "excellent", but without further explaining what is good. The evaluation attitude is perfunctory, and the evaluation effect is not ideal. In addition, we found that students are not aware of self-evaluation and mutual evaluation, and do not know how to evaluate. However, in the teaching process, students are the subjects of learning. Effective classroom teaching evaluation requires students’ participation and cooperation, so as to exercise students’ verbal expression ability and fully mobilize students’ initiative.

3.3 Simple content of teaching evaluationIn the art classroom of rural primary schools, both teachers and students also need to raise a certain degree of evaluation awareness. Most teachers often use their own standards to evaluate students’ works, and they attach importance to the mastery of students’ art skills, students’ art work, whether the composition is full and the colors are accurate, while ignoring students’ performance in the learning process, students’ interest, emotion, imagination, as well as creativity. Art teachers always use the same standard to evaluate different students. Such evaluation content is too simple and one-sided, does not teach students according to their aptitude, and ignores the students’ individuality, differences and overall development.

Therefore, teachers should strengthen the concept of teaching evaluation, sort out the shortcomings of traditional evaluation, analyze the problems and deficiencies in their own teaching evaluation, combine the actual learning situation of students, pay attention to current education trends, and update evaluation methods and strategies in a timely manner.

4 Application of multiple evaluation in art classroom of rural primary schools

According to China’s new education policy with "developmental function" as the core, teachers should follow the rules of students’ physical and mental development when evaluating them, follow the principle of "varying with each individual", and pay attention to the individual development of rural students. This requires that our teaching evaluation methods are diversified, the evaluation subject is multi-dimensional, and the evaluation content is multiple.

4.1 Diversified evaluation methodsThe new curriculum standard points out that it is necessary to base on the development of students, evaluate from the aspects of knowledge and ability, process and methods, emotional attitudes and values, in order to comprehensively evaluate students’ aesthetic qualities[3]. Therefore, teachers should combine the evaluation content and the characteristics of students’ learning, and choose appropriate evaluation methods to reflect students’ learning performance.

4.1.1Portfolio evaluation. In order to make every student see their own progress, teachers can use portfolio evaluation. Portfolio, also known as growth record bag, is the data that can reflect the process and results of students’ art learning through the participation of students, such as related materials of students’ creations, learning experience, rethinking on problem solving, periodic comments of classmates, groups, teachers and parents, and student works,etc., to record the process of student growth. Portfolio evaluation can provide rich contents for teachers, parents and students themselves, reflect what students know and do, and provide students with opportunities to self-assess and reflect on their own works, thereby promoting students’ independent development.

4.1.2Qualitative evaluation. Pupil’s thinking in images is better than abstract thinking and they are eager to get praise and affirmation. Compared with quantitative evaluation, primary school art courses should attach greater importance to the qualitative evaluation. The evaluation of students’ classroom performance and art assignments should implement a hierarchical system, and convert the hierarchical system into visual marks, such as five-pointed stars, small red flowers, small seals,etc., and use encouraging words to evaluate students’ performance in class, affirm the student’s achievements. At the same time, it is required to point out students’ shortcomings and areas for improvement, and guide students’ further development.

4.1.3Combination of instant evaluation and delayed evaluation. In the evaluation of art teaching, an evaluation method that combines instant evaluation and delayed evaluation can be used to vigorously praise students with innovative thinking methods, promptly praise students with academic difficulties, and propose directions for efforts to immediately encourage students who dare to raise questions. Primary school art teaching should allow some students to gradually reach the teaching goals of the current semester with the accumulation of art knowledge and skills after a period of hard work. Thus, teachers can adopt the delayed evaluation method. When students are dissatisfied with their art homework, teachers can leave enough time for students to practice art skills in order to achieve perfect results. Teachers can give evaluation and encouraging comments on students’ second homework. Such delayed evaluation can encourage students to continuously improve and perfect their homework, so that students can clearly see their progress, feel the joy of success, and greatly stimulate students’ new learning motivation.

4.2 Multi-dimensional evaluation subjectsThe multiple evaluation manifests the "people-oriented" educational philosophy, changing the traditional and single teacher-based teaching evaluation method, carrying out self-evaluation, student mutual evaluation or group mutual evaluation, teacher evaluation,etc., establishing an open and relaxed evaluation atmosphere, which is helpful for students to realize independent learning and development.

4.2.1Self-evaluation. Self-evaluation refers to students’ self-evaluation of their art work based on their knowledge and skills in the course. Students can talk about their own creative ideas. They can also use concise words to re-examine their homework in terms of conception, picture content, color, composition,etc., compared with excellent works, to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and find out their own future direction and foothold. Self-evaluation can improve students’ observation and analysis skills.

4.2.2Student mutual evaluation or group mutual evaluation. Group leader can organize students to evaluate the subject content, ideation creativity, painting skills, artistic language, aesthetic appeal and exploration ability,etc., or make mutual suggestions for modification, so that students can understand the strengths of others and weaknesses of their own in the evaluation and communication, so as to make self-improvement in the future learning process. Student mutual evaluation or group mutual evaluation is also a process of cultivating students’ cooperative learning ability. In the process of mutual evaluation, teachers should guide students to weaken their mutual comparisons, emphasizing attention to the strengths and merits of their classmates, and emphasizing the ability of self-reflection, so as to realize learning from each other and making progress in mutual evaluation and mutual assistance.

4.2.3Teacher evaluation. Teachers should properly guide students to understand the problems in art homework, and use encouraging words to evaluate students’ mastery of art knowledge and skills, as well as their learning attitude, language expression, study habits, creative ability and creative works, encourage the further development of students and cultivate their interest in learning art.

5 Multiple evaluation content

Multiple evaluation is also reflected in the diversity of teaching evaluation content of art courses in rural primary schools. The evaluation content of primary school art teaching includes students’ classroom performance and art homework. The performance of students in the classroom is not only directly related to the successful completion of the teaching objectives of the art course, but also indirectly develops the potential of students’ comprehensive abilities such as observation, thinking, aesthetics and cooperation. Teachers evaluate students’ performance in class, including observing whether students’ preparations for class are adequate, whether they listen carefully; whether they actively raise their hands to speak, ask questions, discuss and communicate; whether they are good at cooperating with others and listening to others’ opinions; whether they can think independently and actively express their opinions; whether the language is clear, organized, and innovative,etc. It is necessary to not only pay attention to students’ emotions and attitudes in learning art, but also care about the changes and development of students in the process of learning art. Art homework is an intuitive reflection of the level of art skills that students have learned. Therefore, teachers need to evaluate students’ art homework by grade or score, and provide simple enlightening or instructive comments. In this respect, teachers should be good at digging out the shining points of students’ art work, either from the whole or from the part; or the modeling language, color manifestation, composition arrangement; or the imagination and creativity of the work. Teachers should teach students in accordance with their aptitude, praise, encourage and guide effectively, so as to effectively stimulate students’ love and potential for art[4]. In addition, teachers should pay attention to students’ personality and expertise, and make appropriate evaluations from multiple levels of knowledge and skills, processes and methods, and emotional attitudes and values, so that students can build up self-confidence in learning and lay a certain foundation for their overall development and lifelong learning.

6 Conclusions

With the continuous and in-depth development of the new curriculum reform in China, the multiple evaluation focusing on individuality and innovative quality has become an important part of the evaluation of art teaching. Multiple evaluation advocates the evaluation based on the evaluation process to promote student development. This is not only a reform of the teaching evaluation system, but more importantly, the transformation of evaluation concepts, evaluation methods, and evaluation implementation processes. The implementation of multiple evaluation in the art classroom teaching in rural primary schools is favorable for promoting the interaction between teaching and learning, and conducive to the active development of students, so as to cultivate students’ analytical, thinking and problem-solving abilities, and promote art teaching to radiate new vigor and vitality.