Introduction

Under the trend of "double reduction", the research and learning that had been tepid before has received much attention. While the number of research products has increased, the serious homogeneity of products and uneven quality of teachers have also become a dilemma that the research track has to break. Next, the supply and demand of the research and learning market will continue to release. Can it inject new vitality into the research and learning track?

1 The race track competition of thousands of newly registered research institutions is becoming increasingly fierce

Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. The yearning of Chinese people for learning travel has existed since ancient times. At present, it is also highly respected to broaden our horizons, enrich our knowledge and deepen our closeness to nature and culture on the way to travel.

In 2013, it was mentioned in the National Leisure Program (2013-2020) issued by the State Council that primary and secondary school students should gradually carry out research travel.

In 2016, the Ministry of Education and other 11 departments jointly issued the Opinions on Promoting the Study Travel of Primary and Middle School Students, which clearly included the study into the daily education and teaching plan.

In the next few years, research has gradually been accepted by more parents, and its forms have become diversified. However, on the whole, research has never stepped on a fast track. Until this year, under the trend of "double reduction", the teaching and training industry changed rapidly, and research and learning ushered in new opportunities.

The Opinions on Further Reducing the Student's Work Burden and Off campus Training Burden at the Compulsory Education Stage issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council clearly pointed out that it is strictly prohibited to take holidays, rest days, winter and summer vacations for disciplinary training.

As a result, how to arrange holidays for children has become a headache for parents, and the research craze has arisen. The 2021 Summer Tourism Big Data Report released by Ctrip shows that while the customized tourism market continues to be hot, leisure parent-child travel and research travel experience have become the main force of customized summer tourism. From the supply side, the research tourism products have increased by more than 650% compared with the summer vacation in 2020, and the search volume of research tourism products has more than doubled compared with the same period last year.

The research market is heating up, and many teaching and training institutions show interest in research. In May this year, the education officer of Reith announced the brand upgrade and launched three new brands: "Randian Science Museum", "Reith Haiya Growth Space" and "Reith Research". Among them, "RIS Research" mainly focuses on the comprehensive practical ability of young children.

On October 13, New Oriental issued a notice on the adjustment of the organizational structure of the business departments of the training schools of the Group. It was mentioned in the notice that New Oriental schools need to set up an international study tour and camp education department, which is oriented to the whole learning period and is mainly responsible for the research camp business.

Also in October, Angli Education launched three new product systems, including the practice and creation camp, outdoor research camp and other projects.

In the tide of the transformation of teaching and training institutions, research has become a popular option. In addition, there are also many new players entering the research track to participate in the competition. In the enterprise investigation, research was used as the key word to search, and more than 80000 relevant results were found, including nearly 8000 enterprises in operation or existing in the past year.

2. After "double reduction", research and learning meet opportunities and force industry standardization

Although the research track has attracted more and more players to compete, the current research market is still in its early stage on the whole. A series of problems, such as numerous participants but mixed good and bad, and low degree of product refinement, have become an unavoidable dilemma for research in the current wind stage.

As a cross industry field, such as tourism and education, the participants of research show diversity. On December 19, 2016, the former National Tourism Administration issued the "Research Travel Service Specification", which was officially implemented on May 1, 2017. According to the Regulations on Research Travel Service, the sponsor of research should be a legally registered travel agency, a department or full-time personnel that should set up research travel. However, in reality, there are not many research activities carried out by institutions without training qualifications and tourism qualifications.

The lack of official standards for practitioners has also given some non professionals an opportunity to take advantage of. According to insiders, at present, most of the certificates such as "research tutors" and "research counselors" are assessed and issued by enterprises themselves, lacking national certificates certified by official departments. The lack of unified teacher standards also leads to uneven research teachers and training quality of research teachers.

The subjects and teachers with low or even no quality are mixed into the research field, which directly affects the effect of research activities. At present, "only travelling but not learning" has become one of the outstanding problems in the black list of research and learning. The Service Specifications for Research Travel clearly states that research travel is an educational tourism activity for experiential education and research learning. However, how to balance the relationship between tourism and learning is a common dilemma faced by research institutions. From the market situation, there are few institutions with excellent curriculum design ability and line development and activity operation ability. Many parents have doubts about the research market and research products due to the phenomenon of "only learning but not travelling".

Some parents revealed that some of their children's research activities were very random. The children followed the teacher throughout the visit and listened to the teacher for simple explanations. They basically only had visual and auditory experience. Most of the time, they just walked around. Without deeper perception, it was difficult to get substantial gains, and the effect was not satisfactory.

There are many kinds of research products, and the difference of fees for research activities is also very large. At present, relevant departments have not formulated a clear charging standard for research travel, and there is no basis for specific links to charge and pricing space.

In the past, research was an activity with relatively low frequency and high price. However, as children's after-school time is more liberated from discipline training, the scale of research travel will be further expanded, and the design and fees of research activities need to be adjusted accordingly.

Strictly speaking, the products of the research market, which is still in its early stage, are naturally difficult to meet the needs of consumers. It is inevitable to study product standardization and quality improvement. On July 28, the Education Department of Jiangxi Province held a press conference on the series of standards for research travel in primary and secondary schools in Jiangxi Province, releasing the criteria for the identification of research travel bases (camps) in primary and secondary schools, the criteria for curriculum setting, the criteria for organization and implementation, and the criteria for evaluation. Next, there will be more rules for the standardization of the research track.

3 Is the Winter Holiday Battle Starting to Play an Important Role in the Success of Research?

At present, the overall education and training market is getting colder, and the gradually hot research and learning may attract more institutions' attention and investment, so as to retain more vitality for themselves.

The benefits of the policy for research activities are also obvious. The Fourteenth Five Year Cultural Industry Development Plan issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in June mentioned that we should strengthen the exploration of the value of cultural heritage resources, encourage the development of cultural heritage tourism and research tourism relying on cultural relics and intangible cultural heritage resources, and develop new research tourism products integrating cultural experience, scientific and technological innovation, knowledge popularization, entertainment and leisure, and parent-child interaction.

In previous years, the cold and summer seasons have always been a crucial period for education and training institutions. After the implementation of "double reduction", the competition for K12 discipline training will not be as fierce as in the past. This summer vacation, the supply and demand of the research market has ushered in a round of explosion. With the approaching and holding of the Winter Olympic Games, the popularity of outdoor activities in the winter vacation next year will be upgraded, and the research market may meet more demand.

At the same time, educational and training institutions have also targeted the opportunities in winter to develop more abundant products. On October 22, New Oriental International Study Tour&Camp Education released the "Explore China" 2022 Winter Holiday New Oriental Research&Camp Education Products, and launched a number of theme projects such as humanistic literacy, public welfare China, scientific and technological exploration, outdoor sports, camp education, famous schools and enterprises.

Although in the past period, the problems such as serious product homogeneity, no clear charging standard, and lack of practicality have become factors restricting the healthy development of the industry. However, with the entry of more players, the research competition is bound to become fierce, forcing institutions to focus on products and standardize operations. The addition of discipline training institutions that have rich educational resources and accumulated a lot of operating experience may also inject new blood into the development of research market and research products.

The opportunity for the track of research and learning has come. In the cold winter, research and learning may attract more institutions to pay more attention. However, the recurrence of the epidemic has also become a major uncertainty affecting the development of research and learning activities. In addition, in the process of standardized development, institutions should not only avoid making research and learning become a mere formality, but also should not overcorrect, only learn, not swim, and increase anxiety.