“Does assessment kill creativity?”
Pre- Reading:
• title to the article is very engaging
• I believe that assessment does kill creativity
• When someone is able to openly express themselves they are able to show more creativity in their work or performance
• When a student doesn’t fear assessment they are able to work without boundaries
During reading:
• Creativity is often overshadowed by other demands placed on teacher’s instructional time
-Demand that is backed by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
-Increased assessment of student learning
• Teachers are required to devote large portions of their instructural time preparing students for assessments, proctoring those assessment, and communicating the results to students and parents
• Creativity
-the interaction among aptitude, process, and environment by which an individual or group produces a perceptible product that is both novel and useful as defined within a social context.
• The judgment of creativity depends on the context and the stakeholders in the context (such as the classroom teacher)
• creative process
-divergent stage: generating novel ideas, problems, or solution
-convergent stage: evaluating and choosing ideas, completing the task, and communicating the results
• “assessment practices in classrooms with a mastery goal structure are used to provide students with useful information and feedback on how they are progressing relative to their own achievement.”
• Teachers may try to motivate students by displaying only outstanding work
-Send the message that over performing others, rather than self-improvement is the reason for engaging in achievement directed behavior
• Two types of environments that a teacher creates
-Goal related
-Mastery goal structure
• Assessments do not necessarily diminish student creativity; rather how students perceive the goals messages sent by their teacher’s assessment practices is what matters
• When students focus on self-improvement they are more likely to take risks, seek out challenges, and persevere in the face of difficulty
• Pressure caused from evaluations can cause anxiety that distracts from the creative task
• By being aware of how differing assessment practices can influence student creativity, teachers can make more efforts to ensure that the answer to does “assessment kill creativity” is a NO!
Post reading:
• Prior to reading the article I had very different views about the relationship between assessment and creativity. However, after reading the article I realized that it really depends on the type of assessment that is being done when trying to compare to creativity. I believe that in both the elementary and secondary levels it is more important to focus on self-improvement and self-set goals. Once students realize that the assessment is not the only thing that matters, then they will work towards bettering their assignments and taking risks. I can relate closely to this article because I feel that when I have fewer rules to follow I let my creativity take over and still try to complete the assignment to the best of my ability!
Reference: Beghetto, R.A., (2005). Does assessment kill student creativity? The Educational Forum, (69) 2 p254-263
Thanks for sharing Jasleen. So true that the type of assessment undertaken is of critical importance to developing creativity and, really, extending student learning. I am curious as to why you have qualified “in the younger years” when discussing the importance of self-improvement and goal setting? When/why does this shift or end?