The evaluation and reflection of guided learning plan : how GLP works in a Chinese high school physics classroom

Abstract

Guided Learning Plan (GLP) has been a curriculum reform in mainland China since 2001. It is widely used in different schools, but its evaluation may not be most desirable. Usually, students’ examination results serve as the basis for the evaluation of GLP. This method may be simple but may ignore lots of GLP implementation information. Therefore, this study mainly uses CIPP evaluation model (context, input, process and product evaluation) to evaluate how GLP works in a Chinese high school, in the context of physics subject. The objectives of this study are to conduct a comprehensive GLP evaluation and make recommendations for future improvement. The research questions are: (1) Is the objective of GLP responsive to students' physics learning condition and school’s situation? (2) How do the input resources meet the needs of students and teachers? (3) How is the actual implementation of physics GLP before class, during class and after class? (4) How do the outcomes of using GLP consistent with its objective? The mixed research method in this study includes: a qualitative analysis of 5 structured interviews, 3 classroom observation analysis, a GLP document review, and a quantitative analysis of 135 student questionnaires and 13 teacher questionnaires. According to the result, students valued the role of GLP in self-regulated learning (SRL) before and after class, while teachers seemed to pay more attention to GLP subject content being dealt with in the classroom. Basically, GLP worked quite well with other learning materials like textbooks and exercise book. But the results also showed that the school’s insufficient investment in GLP student resources may make students lack understanding of GLP. The study found the target school’s GLP may lack some extracurricular knowledge expansion and multi-solutions guidance, which needed teachers to spend more time on designing it. Lastly, it was hoped that the school can standardize the use of GLP, and can consider forming a school-based GLP curriculum. The researcher hopes that all these ideas can be heard and related improvements can be made to GLP.