Construction and Exploration of the Evaluation Index System of Junior High School Students’ Moral Development from the Perspective of Value-Added Evaluation ()
1. Introduction
If young people are doing well, the country will be prosperous, and if young people are strong, the country will be strong. If young people are to be strong, “all-around development of morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics and labor” must be promoted. When it comes to compulsory education, we often emphasize the all-round development of students, but in fact, “intelligence” has received far more attention than other aspects. Looking back at China’s new curriculum reform at the beginning of the 21st century, the so-called “quality education” is still subject-centered. The bumpy road of quality education has aroused the thinking of the society and scholars on cultivating talents needed by the 21st century society.
Under the background of the new era, the competition for comprehensive national strength is becoming more and more fierce, and it is particularly important to foster virtue through education (Shi, 2011). Students must not only love learning, be able to learn, and understand learning, but also must have the key abilities and character required by contemporary society, such as loving the motherland and nation, having good values, and cultivating a sound and independent personality. With the development of education evaluation reform, schools and regions have begun to explore diversified evaluation methods, aiming to better evaluate and promote the development of students in all aspects, including morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics and labor. At present, most of the domestic research and practice cases on value-added evaluation focus on students’ academic progress over a period of time. On the one hand, due to the relatively high measurability of intelligence, test scores can be quantified, while morality, art, labor, etc. are relatively abstract, and it is difficult to assign scores accurately. On the other hand, most of the domestic value-added evaluation models come from abroad, and local models still need to be explored and developed, especially for the difficult-to-measure dimension of morality, which needs to be evaluated with qualitative methods.
For a long time, schools have emphasized “intellectual education” and neglected “moral education”. The situation is grim, which goes against the educational goal of cultivating well-rounded people. This requires us to re-examine the evaluation of students in all aspects of education. At the same time, as a new evaluation method that pays attention to students’ development, value-added evaluation is worth exploring its implicit educational evaluation concept and connotation. Based on the background of students’ comprehensive development and value-added evaluation, this research focuses on the moral development evaluation of junior high school students.
2. Theoretical Basis
Kohlberg, an Ameriacn psychologist, developed the stage theory of children’s moral development, which is based on Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory. Kohlberg tries to refine and develop Piaget’s theory. He uesd the “dilemma method” subjects were asked to make moral judments, and exlpain the reason to make such judgments, and then determine the subjects of moral cognition development level.
Kohlberg divides moral cognition into three different levels: the pre-conventional level, the conventional level, and the post-conventional level. Each level has two different stages, for a total of six stages. The age of junior high school students is usually between 13 - 15 years old, and they are at the conventional level of moral development. At this level, moral judgments and their standards are the same as those of ordinary adults and are divided into two stages, including the moral orientation of seeking and respecting authority and maintaining social order. The first stage of this level (stage 3) is characterized by seeking to do things that will gain the respect of others. The second stage of this level (stage 4) is oriented toward obeying the law and fulfilling obligations (Kohlberg, 1977). At the conventional level of moral development, junior high school students’ social consciousness has shifted from concern for others to concern for the law. As they grow up, they will face more and more moral dilemmas. Therefore, it is necessary for them to construct a fair moral development evaluation index system.
3. Research Method and Process
3.1. Research Method
Grounded Theory is a classic research method in the field of qualitative research. Proposed by American scholar Glaser and Strauss in 1967, the aim of the theory was to generate theory, and it came from empirical materials (Chen, 2015). In the book The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research written by Glaser and Strauss, they observed medical staff on site and studied and summarized a set of qualitative research methods (Wu, Wu, & Ma, 2014). Scientific research should border the real world, and can analyze the grand theoretical system to solve practical problems in daily life. The theory is characterized by researchers who do not have specific assumptions before performing actual operation. Instead, they gradually build a bridge between data and theory when collecting data, and finally generate the Grounded Theory.
Mastering a large amount of original data, and encoding the original data orderly is the basis of the Grounded Theory. The programmatic coding process of the Grounded Theory includes three stages: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. First of all, in the open coding stage, researchers should master a large amount of original data as much as possible, maintain a neutral attitude when classifying and analyzing the data, and adhere to the principle of “believe in everything but do nothing”. At this stage, the data should be tapped carefully, so that it can have a preliminary naming and category, and a memorandum can be written in time. Second, axial coding is to integrate, refine and deepen the data extracted from the previous coding, and discover and establish various connections between various types of materials. Finally, selective coding is to check and review all the materials again and get the focused category based on axial coding. By doing so, the core category can finally be obtained.
Grounded Theory provides practical tools for the development of social scientific research. Researchers have always maintained the theoretical sensitivity through dialogue with data, carefully analyzed the research phenomenon, and finally constructed a new theoretical model. The ideals and beliefs, social responsibility, and manners and behavior are three key indicators of moral development in the evaluation of students’ development quality in the Guidelines for Evaluating the Quality of Compulsory Education. This research compares key indicators, modifies and codes the guideline and it is used as a first-level indicator of the evaluation index system of moral development of junior high school students.
3.2. Major Process
3.2.1. Data Collection
This research collects basic text materials based on Grounded Theory and chooses China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for the literature search, with research key words, such as value-added evaluation of students’ moral development, evaluation of students’ moral development, moral development of junior high school students and well-rounded students etc. In order to ensure the authority of this research, basic text materials are mainly selected from core journals, supplemented by master and doctors’ theses. Secondly, on the basis of collecting relevant literature, the author also searches relevant policy documents, junior high school students’ moral standards and other text materials, such as Regulations for Primary and Middle School Students, the Ministry of Education’s Opinions on Comprehensive Deepening Curriculum Reform and Implementing the Fundamental Mission of Fostering Virtue through Education, the General Plan on Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era, the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan, Guidelines for Evaluating the Quality of Compulsory Education, and 2020 National Assessment of Education Quality—Moral Education.
This study mainly uses the Guidelines for Evaluating the Quality of Compulsory Education as the reference for constructing the index system, specifically referring to the first-level index in the evaluation of student development quality: moral development. The first-level indicators include three second-level indicators: ideals and convictions, social responsibility, manners and behaviors. Firstly, this study classifies and analyzes the coding of original texts to form the preliminary indicators for evaluating moral development. Then, according to three secondary indicators in the Guidelines for Evaluating the Quality of Compulsory Education, the primary indicators obtained by coding are revised again, and the secondary and three-level indicators are refined and modified in accordance with the revised primary indicators, and finally a complete evaluation index system of moral development of junior high school students is obtained.
Grounded Theory is a research method that focuses on the collection, analysis, and summary of initial data and emphasizes on in-depth analysis of the data and enhances the theory from the data. Therefore, when collecting materials in this study, the researchers focused on the latest policy documents centered well-rounded students, and on the basis of this, they maximized the theoretical saturation of the article, and widened and supplemented text materials.
3.2.2. Opening Coding
The collection and processing of initial data are mainly concentrated in the opening coding. The key to obtain clear and accurate concepts and categories lies in opening coding. The specific operation is as follows:
First of all, use NVIVO12.0 to code the text materials in accordance with the initial form, and use the label form for induction. After obtaining 318 statements related to the evaluation of the moral development of junior high school students and merging part of the synonymous sentences, finally, 111 labeled sentences are produced and numbered with letter A.
Secondly, through multiple analysis and comparison, the initial concept is excavated and integrated again to form a more accurate 23 sub-category, such as: establish a correct outlook on life, love and support the motherland and nation, and it is numbered with letter B. Examples are shown in Table 1.
3.2.3. Axial Coding
The main purpose of axial coding is to connect and summarize the results obtained from the open coding. In this research, the 28 sub-categories obtained are compared and sorted, and 11 main categories are merged and numbered with the letter C, as shown in Table 2.
![]()
Table 1. Parts of examples of evaluation index system of moral development of junior high school students.
3.2.4. Selective Coding
The selective coding in the Grounded Theory is the last step in the three-level coding, which is a further induction and classification of the concepts based on the previous two coding steps. Alternative coding has a dominant meaning, and has an inclusive effect on other sub-genera. On the basis of the 11 main categories formed by the main axial coding, three core categories are further summarized, namely: ideals and beliefs, social responsibility, and manners and behavior. The details are shown in Table 3 below.
The research obtains the node system of the evaluation index system of moral development of junior high school students from the perspective of value-added evaluation by coding the text data. On this basis, according to the principle of index construction, the index elements of the evaluation index system are preliminarily selected (Table 4).
4. Interpretation of the Content of Evaluation Indicators for Moral Development of Junior High School Students
4.1. The Relationship between Ideals and Beliefs and Second-Level Indicators
The term “ideals and beliefs” is a new concept formed by the combination of
![]()
Table 4. The evaluation index system of junior high school students’ moral development from the perspective of value-added evaluation.
“ideals” and “beliefs” in the process of reform and opening up. Among them, ideals are formed by people through practical activities, and can possibly be achieved. At the same time, they are full of the pursuit and yearning for their own development and social progress, and can focus on the goals of people’s struggle. Belief is the mental state and psychological attitude established by people to maintain an unswerving attitude towards certain things or concepts based on basic knowledge and practice them. It is stable, persistent and diverse. In social practice activities, when people maintain a firm attitude towards a certain idea or concept and put it into practice, it shows that people have formed certain beliefs. Ideals and beliefs are closely related and are two aspects of the same kind of spiritual phenomenon. The two are interdependent, infiltrated and integrated with each other, forming a unified ideal and belief (Wu, 2011). This research believes that the ideals and beliefs of junior high school students are mainly manifested in three aspects.
One, the spirit of patriotism. The national spirit and the spirit of the times are two aspects of the spirit of patriotism, and they are closely related. Only when the national spirit is combined with the spirit of the times can it have lasting vitality. The national spirit constitutes the national characteristics of the patriotic spirit. Without the national spirit, the spirit of the times will not be able to find a realistic national carrier, will lose its due national characteristics, and the cultivation and promotion of the patriotic spirit will be impossible; the spirit of the times constitutes the characteristics of the times of the Chinese spirit. Without the spirit of the times, it is difficult for the national spirit to absorb the fresh development force from the practice of the times promptly, and it will lose the value of the times, and the cultivation and promotion of patriotism will also be impossible.
Second, establish correct outlook on the world and life and values. The majority of young people should establish outlook on the world and life and values. Today’s society is full of utilitarianism, hedonism, etc. These unhealthy atmospheres have a serious negative impact on the shaping of values of junior high school students. The middle school period is an important stage for the formation and development of their values, so it is necessary to give scientific guidance to the junior high school students during the critical period of their establishment. Establishing a correct outlook on the world is conducive to helping junior high school students to understand the nature of the world scientifically and correctly treat the relationship between individuals and the objective world; establishing a correct outlook on life is conducive to cultivating junior high school students to have a positive, enterprising, serious and pragmatic attitude towards life; establishing correct values is beneficial for junior high school students to establish correct values, and to look at fame, fortune and wealth objectively.
Third, establish lofty ideals. The lofty ideals are the powerful spiritual driving force that drives people to strive for their ideal goals. Establishing lofty ideals can improve people’s spiritual realm, shape a noble ideal personality, cultivate young people’s strong perseverance and indomitable spirit to overcome difficulties, and encourage young people to consciously devote themselves to practice, continue to forge ahead, and achieve their goals through struggle.
4.2. The Relationship between Social Responsibility and Second-Level Indicators
Social responsibility refers to the ethical concerns and obligations that people have in their minds towards others in a given society. Due to the negative impact of rapid social change and development, the problem of lack of social responsibility among contemporary teenagers has become more and more serious, and many teenagers have gradually become “exquisite egoists”, only pursuing their own interests rather than trying to increase the greatest happiness for all people. Historical experience has proved that if the masses put individual interests above group interests, then this society without a sense of responsibility will eventually fall into a quagmire, which is not conducive to the sustainable development of the country. As the hope of the motherland, whether contemporary junior high school students can establish a firm sense of social responsibility is closely related to the future and destiny of the country. This research believes that the social responsibility of junior high school students is mainly manifested in four aspects.
First, responsibility and obligations. The word “responsibility and accountability” is a combination of “responsibility” and “obligations”. “Responsibility” mainly means “to make people assume certain duties and positions”, and “obligations” refers to “take the initiative to undertake corresponding responsibilities and obligations, focusing on highlighting the importance of actions”. The formation of a sense of responsibility is the result of continuous practice by individuals in the process of practicing responsible behavior. A sense of responsibility and a sense of obligation complement each other and are inseparable. The rise and fall of the world lies in the responsibility of the individual. As an important part of society, everyone must be responsible for themselves and the collective. As the hope of the nation, every junior high school student must have a basic sense of responsibility. Strengthening the sense of responsibility and obligation of junior high school students is not only a way to promote the development of a harmonious society, but also a basic requirement to cultivate talents.
Second, abide by the laws. Morality is the foundation of the laws. Law refers to the sum of social norms formulated by state power organs and implemented by coercive force, with the characteristics of coercion, authority and efficiency; morality is the sum of behavioral norms for the relationship between individuals and others, and between individuals and society, which reflects human’s natural yearning for the rationality of value, and penetrates into all aspects of social life. Obeying the law is a basic obligation that every citizen in society needs to perform, and the stability of social order can be guaranteed through the formulation of laws. Morality seems like a steel scale in everyone’s heart, and its formation is based on the rules and regulations of social secularization to meet the interests of the vast majority of people. As the sum of social behavior norms and value judgments, morality not only dominates people’s most basic concepts, but also promotes people’s self-improvement and the harmonious development of interpersonal relationships and the overall society. Therefore, contemporary junior high school students should take the law as the criterion, take morality as the standard, and promote the construction of citizens’ legal morality in the new era.
Third, love your family and your school. The family is the first school in one’s life, and the school is the main front of a person’s formal education. As the two organizations with the highest participation of junior high school students, families and schools have the responsibility to cultivate their healthy and good characters. Correspondingly, junior high school students should also have a sense of gratitude, love their families and schools, and properly handle the relationship with their relatives, classmates and teachers.
Fourth, protect the environment. As a basic national policy of China, saving resources and protecting the environment are important measures to promote sustainable development of society. Relevant studies have shown that humans are an important part of the earth’s ecosystem, and the two influence each other. In order to realize the sustainable development of man and nature, all citizens should learn more theoretical knowledge related to the environment and raise their awareness of protecting the environment. In recent years, although China’s ecological environment has been gradually improved, the ecological environment in some areas still faces severe challenges. To fundamentally solve ecological problems, we must not only take effective prevention and control measures, but also improve citizens’ ecological awareness and establish a correct ecological outlook. As an important member of ecological civilization construction in the future, contemporary junior high school students should take their own actions to actively protect the environment and respond to basic national policies while establishing the awareness of environmental protection.
4.3. The Relationship between Manners and Behavior and Second-Level Indicators
Manners and behavior have following characteristics: manners are automatic behaviors; manners can meet certain needs of people, so manners have both positive and negative effects. The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero once said, “Habits create second nature.” The behavior and manners of junior high school students are shaped when they grow up, and the development of good behaviors plays an important role in the development of junior high school students. This study believes that the good manners and behaviors of junior high school students should include the following aspects.
First, be civilized, polite and honest. Civilized etiquette runs through China’s five thousand years of history. Confucius said that manners make the man. Civilized etiquette is the bottom line of moral norms that human beings must abide by in order to maintain a stable and normal social life. Junior high school students can not only improve their ideological and moral cultivation, master interpersonal skills to build a harmonious environment in the family, class and school, but also promote the revival of Chinese civilization. Honesty and trustworthiness is also the foundation of a person’s life and work. It is not only the norms and moral principles of the society, but also the moral responsibility of every citizen. It is also the dialectical unity of the individual and the society, inner thoughts and practical actions. The construction of integrity is a long-term, complex, and tortuous process. Personal integrity is accumulated over time. If you break your promise, everything you do will be doubted. Therefore, junior high school students should pay attention to the importance of integrity, accumulate credit for themselves, and regard it as the foundation for stepping into society in the future.
Second, thrift. Diligence and frugality has been pursued and practiced in the construction of China’s economical society in the new era. State leaders have repeatedly emphasized the importance of diligence and thrift, and believe that we should continue to strengthen publicity and education in this area, and effectively cultivate the habit of being frugal, so as to create an atmosphere of pride in being thrifty and discarding waste in the whole society. However, affected by the social atmosphere of pursuing quick success and extravagant comparisons, contemporary junior high school students have shown problems, such as excessive consumption and comparisons. Diligence and thrift is not only about inheriting and carrying forward the traditional culture of being thrifty, but also the practical need to establish the consciousness of being frugal and carry forward the spirit of hard work. Therefore, it is necessary to guide and cultivate the habit of diligence and thrift among junior high school students.
Third, love labor. A good life hinges on diligence. With diligence, one has no fear for shortages. In recent years, parents and teachers have paid too much attention to academic performance and neglected the importance of labor. Therefore, among junior high school students, the importance of manual labor has been increasingly downplayed, and the concept of getting something for nothing has emerged. In order to overcome this negative concept, labor education should be used to enhance the labor opportunities and labor awareness of junior high school students, and to change some junior high school students’ lack of labor awareness, poor hands-on ability, and lack of cherishing the fruits of labor. Strengthening the labor education of junior high school students is an effective way to promote the development of junior high school students’ moral education, and can lay a solid foundation for their comprehensive development and healthy moral education.
Fourth, shape a healthy personality. In 2021, China’s Ministry of Education pointed out that we should pay attention to differences and individual development for every student. A healthy personality is the foundation for students to integrate into social work and life in the future. Jiang Menglin, a famous educator in modern China, once emphasized the importance of shaping a healthy personality. He believed that developing a healthy individual is the foundation of building a country. Therefore, schools should take respect for differences as the premise and promote the free and all-round development of individuals to fully tap students’ own potential and personal advantages. Shaping the healthy personality of junior high school students can not only turn junior high school students into innovative and energetic healthy individuals, but also cultivate various types of talents for the country.
5. Specific Evaluation Plan
5.1. Encourage Multi-Subject Evaluation Criteria and Establish Students’ Moral Development Portfolios
In the process of students’ moral development, there must be individual differences. Each student has a different understanding of morality and is in a different stage of development. A single evaluation standard cannot be used to judge a student’s moral development. In this process, educators need to actively guide students and use appropriate evaluation methods flexibly, such as establishing students’ moral development portfolios.
The portfolio is also known as the “growth record bag”. Portfolio has two meanings: from the physical level, the portfolio is a purposeful collection of students’ works and records, reflecting students’ progress in a period of time; from a philosophical perspective, the portfolio can be used as a verb, referring to a “collaborative process” between teachers and students, a tool that can be used to reflect and facilitate teaching, and to collect, examine, and use information (Sheila, 1998). In the current education evaluation system, students have always been regarded as evaluated and monitored objects, and school education has not fully realized the development of students as the core. The students’ will is “expressed”, the individuals’ value needs are not reflected from a truly complete “human” standpoint. Even if there are deficiencies and defects in the portfolio, for example, due to the cumbersome steps in the identification of materials, it cannot be used in grades with intense academic stress, which will increase the burden on students and teachers. Even so, the ideas contained in the portfolio coincide with the concept of modern educational evaluation, emphasizing multiple subject evaluation and diversified evaluation methods (Hu & Li, 2006).
The author believes that in the moral development evaluation, the materials and evidence of students’ moral development can be collected in the form of portfolios, and at the same time, the intelligent platform, big data and other technological means can be used to make the operation more convenient and the feedback more timely. First, students can build their own moral development portfolio, record their performances in the file after completing a certain task, and write a reflective journal on personal moral development on a regular basis. Secondly, the content of the portfolio can be enriched through peer evaluation, teacher evaluation, parent evaluation, etc. It can not only record personal reflections and evaluations, but also collect comments and “evidence” provided by all parties, so that the moral development portfolio can be more authentic. The evaluation is based on the original evaluation index system, and the ultimate goal is to focus on the development of students. Within a reasonable range, students can be allowed to give new connotations to each index.
The collection of portfolios can be made to meet various needs, such as process portfolios in the classroom, portfolios for students’ personal presentation, and portfolios that can provide the basis for teachers and parents to evaluate. The key point is to adopt the method of multi-subject evaluation in different stages of students’ growth, record the process of their moral development, and promote students to become people with complete personalities.
5.2. Explore the Moral Evaluation System of Different Disciplines
The moral development of students is not only the responsibility of political teachers and head teachers, but also the shared responsibility of the entire school. Moral development is not achieved overnight, but is formed by long-term edification and cultivation of the environment. The so-called “keep good men company and you shall be of the number” means that if a good moral atmosphere can be created, students will imitate and follow good behaviors, and consciously receive moral education.
In the Guidelines for Moral Education in Primary and Secondary Schools promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 2016, it pointed out that it is necessary to give full play to the role of the main channel of teaching in the classroom, and to refine the content of moral education in primary and secondary schools into the teaching objectives of each subject curriculum, and integrate it into education and teaching in the whole process. The author also believes that the moral education resources contained in different courses should be fully explored, and the moral education content should be organically integrated into the teaching of each course. Exploring the moral evaluation system under different disciplines will make students’ moral development evaluation more scientific and three-dimensional.
6. Conclusion
The road to education evaluation reform in the new era is destined to be arduous and long, and the “score-centered” educational philosophy that has been entrenched in the minds of students, parents and educators for a long time cannot be changed in a short period of time. If we want to reverse the trend of unscientific education evaluation, we must gradually change people’s “score-centered” educational philosophy through mandatory policies, and promote the moral and all-round development of students.
Funding
Research on theory and practice of value-added evaluation based on student development 2021 (Project No: BFA210064).