A Study On The Correlation Between Reflective Learning And English Achievement Of High School Students

Based on metacognition and constructivism, this study was undertaken to investigate the present situation of reflective English learning of high school students, the correlation between reflective learning (in terms of the learning objective, the learning process, and the learning result) and English achievement of high school students as well as the appropriate attitude of high school teachers and students toward reflective English learning.The research questions to be addressed in this study are as follows:1. What is the present situation of reflective English learning (in terms of the learning objective, process, and result) of high school students?2. What is the relationship between reflective learning (in terms of the learning objective, process, and result) and English achievement of high school students?3. What is the appropriate attitude of high school teachers and students toward reflective English learning?The present study adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods. The former includes a questionnaire survey, and the latter contains an open-ended interview. The subjects of the quantitative research were155students of grade2in Yangzhou High School of Jiangsu Province. The instruments were the Scale of Reflective English Learning of High School Students and a mid-term English examination. Before data collection, a pilot study was conducted. The data of the scales were collected by the researcher and the scores of a mid-term English examination were collected from Ms. Fan, the guide teacher of the researcher in Yangzhou High School. All the relevant data of the scales and scores of the mid-term English examination were calculated by SPSS16.0. Descriptive statistics were employed to reveal the present situation of reflective English learning (in terms of the learning objective, process, and result) of high school students. Pearson Correlation analysis was used to check whether there was correlation between the two variables-the scores of the scales and those of the mid-term English examination. The subjects of the qualitative research were ten students randomly selected from the subjects who had participated in the previous questionnaire survey. An open-ended interview was used to know further about the present situation of reflective English learning of high school students and to draw out their perceptions about reflective English learning. Interviews were carried out individually face to face, lasting about ten minutes. During each interview, notes were taken to keep track of the interview.The major findings of this study are as follows:Firstly, the present situation of reflective English learning of high school students is not satisfactory. Currently high school students have relatively high awareness of reflection on English learning, but in actual study they do not reflect frequently. The degree of awareness of reflection on different learning contents (the learning objective, the learning process, and the learning result) is different.Secondly, reflective learning and English achievement of high school students are significantly correlated. Correlation between reflective learning and English achievement is significant at the0.01level in general (significant at the0.01level in terms of the learning objective, significant at the0.01level in terms of the learning process, and significant at the0.05level in terms of the learning result), that is, the more high school students reflect on English learning (in terms of the learning objective, the learning process, and the learning result), the more they achieve in English learning.Thirdly, high school teachers and students should attach more importance to reflective English learning. The development of reflective learning ability is a long process in which high school teachers and students should all persist. Teachers are supposed to act as guiders, organizers, and participants rather than dictators who think and make decisions for students. Teachers need to think hard to design creative reflective activities to encourage students to reflect. In addition, teachers can encourage students to write reflective English learning journals and students themselves can write reflective journals on their own initiative.This study provides three implications. First, high school students should be encouraged to reflect on English learning (in terms of the learning objective, the learning process, and the learning result). Second, high school students’awareness of reflection on English learning needs to be strengthened. Third, formal instruction can help high school students make use of reflective strategies.This study has its limitations and provides some suggestions for future studies. For one thing, the number of samples employed in this study may be not large enough to present the whole population. Future research can be carried out in larger sample size. For the other thing, reflective English learning in this study is limited to a classification of the learning objective, the learning process and the learning result, and future studies can include different angles.