Classroom Teaching Evaluation of Chinese Painting as a Form of Fine Arts in Rural Junior High Schools

Haishan ZHU, Shuifeng LAN

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

Abstract Teaching evaluation is an indispensable part of the teaching system of junior high school. In order to inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture and arts, traditional Chinese painting has been paid more and more attention to in the fine arts curriculum of rural junior high school. This paper takes the classroom teaching evaluation of traditional Chinese painting as a form of fine arts in rural junior high school as the research object, and analyzes the problems existing in the classroom teaching evaluation of traditional Chinese painting in rural junior high school. This paper puts forward the corresponding improvement measures from the aspects of comprehensive evaluation object, concrete evaluation content, flexible evaluation language and diversified evaluation subjects, in order to improve the evaluation level of fine arts teachers’ classroom teaching, improve students’ aesthetic cognition and learning interest in traditional Chinese painting, and cultivate students’ innovative thinking and spirit.

Key words Fine arts in rural junior high schools, Traditional Chinese painting, Teaching evaluation, China

1 Introduction

In order to inherit and carry forward the excellent traditional culture and fine arts of the Chinese nation, the new rural fine arts curriculum reform pays more and more attention to the teaching of traditional Chinese painting. The content of traditional Chinese painting involved in junior high school arts textbooks is relatively basic, with the teaching goal of cultivating students’ creative ability, thinking ability, aesthetic ability and cognitive ability. Students are required to initially understand and master the basic skills of traditional Chinese painting to improve their aesthetic ability[1]. Therefore, teachers should design the teaching content reasonably according to the natural resources in rural areas, and should not stick in the mud in teaching evaluation. However, according to our field research, the classroom teaching evaluation of Chinese painting in junior high school lags behind relatively, and it mostly follows the traditional evaluation model. This hinders the development of students’ aesthetic ability, innovative thinking and innovative spirit.

2 Research background

At present, rural junior high school students mainly carry out normal fine arts teaching in the first and second year of junior high school, and are occasionally occupied by major subjects such as Chinese and mathematics. Due to the influence of the pressure of enrollment, the fine arts curriculum performs practically no function in the third year of junior high school. The Chinese painting course in the rural junior high schools has only about three class hours per semester, with less class hours and more content, which can only enable students to have a preliminary understanding of the artistic style of traditional Chinese painting and experience the ink painting skills of traditional Chinese painting. Due to the differences in age, psychology, region, cultural background, life experience, family education and school education, there are some individual differences among junior high school students. Their ability to appreciate traditional Chinese painting and the ability to understand the basic techniques are also different[2]. According to field research, some parents or relatives and friends pay attention to the influence of traditional culture and fine arts on their children, some students have come into contact with traditional Chinese painting since childhood, and these students have mastered certain techniques and skills, which can be regarded as students with some foundation. Some students are limited to exposure to brushes but have no contact with traditional Chinese painting in calligraphy class or in life, and some even do not know the course of traditional Chinese painting. Therefore, for most students, traditional Chinese painting is a new course.

The team of fine teachers in rural junior high schools is generally weak, and most of the fine arts courses are offered by the teachers in other subjects. Teachers’ awareness of teaching evaluation is weak, most of them adopt teaching evaluation methods similar to other disciplines, and pay too much attention to teaching results. They can not rationally treat the training goal, are eager for success, and pursue the display effect of excellent traditional Chinese painting works, so they will naturally pay more attention to the students with a little "talent" for traditional Chinese painting, while neglecting the aesthetic experience of other students.

3 Present situation of classroom teaching evaluation of traditional Chinese painting as a form of fine arts in rural junior high schools

3.1 Too much attention to excellent students in evaluation

In the teaching of traditional Chinese painting, teachers ignore the individual differences of junior high school students’ age, psychology, knowledge structure and expression ability, and often use fixed evaluation criteria and a single evaluation method to evaluate students. For example, in the appreciation class of traditional Chinese painting, some students dabble in a wide range of subjects and have strong language skills, while some students have commonplace expression skills and even are ashamed to express themselves, but teachers’ evaluation is mostly focused on praising and encouraging the former, while the evaluation of the latter is simple and random. When guiding students’ painting, most teachers pay more attention to, praise, encourage and guide students with slightly basic knowledge, striving to achieve the expected teaching effect, while ignoring students with their own ideas, "messy" pictures and weak foundation, and offering perfunctory evaluation, or even no evaluation. There are individual differences among students, and teachers pay too much attention to excellent students and ignore beginners, which will lead to more and more differences among students. This is not conducive to stimulation of the enthusiasm of other students to learn traditional Chinese painting, and is not conducive to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and aesthetic literacy of most students.

3.2 One-sided evaluation contentThe teaching evaluation concepts and standards of fine arts teachers in rural junior high schools need to be updated urgently, and the evaluation contents are mostly limited to the evaluation of students’ traditional Chinese painting works. The teacher is the only and final evaluator, without taking into account the diversity of traditional Chinese painting courses and the personality characteristics of students. They ignore students’ participation, learning attitude, appreciation, thinking ability, personality and creativity in the classroom process. Teachers are used to using traditional evaluation criteria for students’ traditional Chinese painting works, only emphasizing whether the students’ copy is good, whether the pictures are good-looking and whether the colors are beautiful, not from the perspective of traditional Chinese painting appreciation to evaluate every work with students’ innovative thinking. This kind of result-based evaluation, ignoring the importance of process evaluation and diversified evaluation, will affect the development of students’ innovative thinking and innovative ability[3].

3.3 Too general evaluation languageThe classroom teaching evaluation of traditional Chinese painting of fine arts teachers in rural junior high school is mainly based on encouraging language, the oral evaluation is too simple, and the written evaluation is more general. For example, in the course of traditional Chinese painting appreciation, teachers often instill the theoretical knowledge of traditional Chinese painting into students unidirectionally, and occasionally interact with students by asking questions. After the students put forward their personal opinions, most of the teachers’ comments are "very good answers" and "good".

The same is true in the experience course of traditional Chinese painting. Teachers generally give priority to their personal views and praise some of the works that seem to be satisfactory, such as "good painting" and "very good painting", but not point out which part of the students’ work or which aspect is good, nor do they point out which aspects are inadequate, how to improve and other substantive content. fine arts teachers pay more attention to the evaluation of classroom assignments, and there are generally "drawing is not bad, come on", "continue to work hard" and other annotations. They choose good ones of the works, and then show the works that they think are a little better in the next class. The language of teachers’ classroom teaching evaluation is too vague to fully encourage students, and students do not understand the direction of efforts.

3.4 Relatively single subject of valuationThe evaluation of fine arts classroom teaching mainly includes the direct participation of teacher evaluation, teacher-student mutual evaluation, student self-evaluation and student mutual evaluation, or the indirect participation of parents and friends. At present, fine arts teachers often give priority to personal opinions, ignoring the participation and views of students themselves, other students and parents. Most of the students’ traditional Chinese painting works are divided in terms of "grades" in the form of comments and scores. Teachers’ direct "definition" of students’ works completely ignores the necessity of students’ self-evaluation and mutual evaluation in learning, and does not give students the opportunity to interpret their own works. Students also lack mutual communication, which violates the "student-oriented" teaching concept, hinders the formation of students’ aesthetic personality, and can not stimulate students’ enthusiasm and activity in class. In the long run, it is not conducive to improving students’ learning awareness of self-evaluation, and is not conducive to the development of students’ imagination, language expression and artistic expression.

4 Improvement strategy of classroom teaching evaluation of traditional Chinese painting as a form of fine arts in rural junior high schools

4.1 Comprehensive evaluation objectThe classroom teaching of traditional Chinese painting should be evaluated reasonably, comprehensively and effectively around the teaching goals such as cultivating students’ interest in learning, improving students’ aesthetic ability, creativity and imagination. The imagination and hands-on ability of the students in the first year of junior high school are strong, and the expression ability and learning ability of the students in the second year of junior high school are relatively strong. Teachers can make different evaluations according to the characteristics of different grades and different students. The teachers should actively answers the questions asked by the students in their paintings. They should give timely guidance and affirmation in the process of painting, giving an appreciative look or a "you are great" gesture. Because of the differences in students’ foundation and understanding, the works have their own characteristics, and there must be shining points in each work. Some students’ composition is very innovative, some students’ pictures are quite poetic, and some students’ pictures are vivid. Teachers should treat students with different learning levels equally and patiently, or and give different encouragement and praise for different students. For example, "the tree you drew is very vivid, adding vitality to the picture", "the composition is very thoughtful, and reasonable arrangement of content can make the picture more artistic." On the premise of understanding students, teachers not only need to praise and encourage students, put forward good suggestions, point out the direction of learning, but also need to evaluate throughout the whole teaching process, teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and make students dare to express themselves and fully show self-worth.

4.2 Specific teaching evaluation contentAccording to the law of physical and mental development, learning characteristics and individual differences of junior high school students, combined with the training goal of the course of Chinese painting, the classroom teaching evaluation of traditional Chinese painting involves classroom discipline, class activity, participation consciousness, learning attitude, knowledge ability, work creativity and practice exercises and so on. The practice link also includes basic techniques, composition layout, pen and ink use, artistic conception expression, creativity, interest, aesthetic consciousness and so on. In addition, the school can also organize students to draw fruits and vegetables in season in rural areas, visit fine arts exhibitions or appreciate ancient Chinese paintings with the help of network resources, to enhance students’ motivation to learn, and analyze their favorite works. They can properly select representative views to communicate in class in order to deepen their impression and improve their aesthetic cognition. In a word, the content of fine arts teachers’ teaching evaluation should take stimulating students’ interest in learning as the starting point, and it should be evaluated reasonably and effectively.

4.3 Flexible teaching evaluation languageEvaluation language is an art. Appropriate comments can fully mobilize the class learning atmosphere and students’ subjective initiative, so that students can maintain their interest in learning traditional Chinese painting. For example, in the appreciation class of "Skill Pounding", the teacher introduces the creative background of the work and the painter’s life experience, and improves the students’ aesthetic cognition by asking questions, and the teacher’s evaluation language should solve some problems flexibly and pertinently. For example, "you just said that there are women in the picture, but it is more accurate to say that they are court ladies", "you touch upon a wide range of contents and can seriously understand the characteristics of figure painting in the Tang Dynasty." This kind of evaluation can not only encourage students, broaden their horizons, but also arouse their enthusiasm for learning. The practice course of traditional Chinese painting includes basic painting posture, brushwork, basic techniques, basic steps and so on. After correcting errors in the practice of sitting posture and painting posture, students are encouraged to enhance their self-confidence through similar languages such as "not bad, painting posture has improved". When teachers inspect the classroom, they should take the initiative to comment on the students’ works, such as "the composition is a little interesting, look forward to your finished product", "yes, paint decisively, the overall effect will be better if paying attention to the layout". Similar encouraging language can make students more confident and bold.

The language of teaching evaluation is not immutable, it can be specific guidance or humorous expression. Teachers need to evaluate flexibly according to different situations to make students resonate in order to really inspire students to learn.

4.4 Diversified teaching evaluation subjectsTeaching is a two-way activity, and teachers can not be the only speakers of teaching evaluation. Students are the main body of learning and participants in evaluation activities[4]. In teaching, teachers should work with students to create a good learning atmosphere.

As an independent individual, students have different life experiences. Only when teachers and students communicate with each other can they understand each other and have ideological collisions. In class, teachers should actively organize students to carry out self-evaluation and mutual evaluation, encourage students to boldly express their opinions, state their own views or put forward suggestions for revision. In accordance with the teaching objectives of each class, teachers can reasonably arrange evaluation links in the teaching process, or use the experience of one point to lead the whole area, or carry out group discussion. Teachers should be good at listening, communicate sincerely with students, treat students’ works and students’ self-evaluation with respect and appreciation, and guide students to analyze the advantages and directions of their efforts. Students’ mutual evaluation can enliven the classroom atmosphere and expand students’ thinking. Therefore, in this process, it is necessary to humbly listen to the opinions and suggestions of students, learn from each other, and absorb the shining points in other people’s works.

5 Conclusion

To sum up, teaching evaluation is an indispensable part of improving the classroom teaching level of traditional Chinese painting. In view of the situation of junior high school students learning traditional Chinese painting, fine arts teachers should always follow the people-oriented principle and teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and improve the evaluation level of fine arts teachers in classroom teaching from the aspects of comprehensive evaluation object, specific evaluation content, flexible evaluation language and diversified evaluation subjects, so as to improve students’ aesthetic cognition and learning interest in traditional Chinese painting, and cultivate students’ innovative thinking and innovative spirit.