Evolution and Future Prospects of Education Evaluation Research in China over the Last Decade

Abstract

With the popularity of educational evaluation studies, researchers have begun to mine text data to provide helpful information for educational stakeholders. Despite the frequent adoption of textual analysis, few studies have been found to search and analyze data from research projects. As the highest-level and most authoritative research projects in China, the Chinese National Education Science Planning projects could fully reflect the research fronts and hotspots in the field. This study examines the educational evaluation projects in the Chinese National Education Science Planning from 2011 to 2020, adopting bibliometric, textual analysis, and visualization methods to present an overview of the educational evaluation research in China. The results have revealed a steady growth of projects on educational evaluation in China as there were 219 projects approved during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, 68 more than that of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, and accounted for 9.00% of the total number of projects launched in the same period. The educational evaluation project organizations are diversified, including universities, scientific research institutions, primary and secondary schools, administrative departments, educational societies, and publishing units. The research trends focus on the close integration of educational evaluation with informatization, needs in educational practice, and national strategic development. This study offers an applicable methodology and framework for the future bibliometric study of educational evaluation.