Like in the Mad Max movie “Beyond Thunderdome”, two subjects are entering an arena – assessment and creativity. Is it to be believed that one cannot exist with the other? How can you be assessed on how creative you can be when creativity is somewhat skewed by biases (or social contexts)? Is there a way to assess and still allow the students the autonomy of creativity?

Two subjects enter… 

Before I read Does assessment kill student creativity?, my initial thoughts are that the subject is going to be on the restrictions that assessment can lay on the creativity of the project – when too much is pre-determined by rubrics and the “right answer”, it limits some students in the amount of work, or type of work they are interested in exploring. In my experience as a student, I’ve had the opportunity to see both sides of the spectrum. In the classes that I have had full rubrics, I found it easy to fill in the prescribed learning to obtain the grade that I wanted. For those classes where I was challenged to essentially create my own projects and then self-reflect on the work that I’ve done, I became more aware of some aspects of myself that I hadn’t had a chance to really explore.

My second thought on the subject had to do with the FSAs and how they can be limiting the chances of gaining knowledge. Due to mandatory government tests and the restrictive nature of some institutions, students are forced into prescribed learning which isn’t a fostering environment for creativity.

As I read the article, I found I wasn’t that far off…

“It seems that the best answer to the question of “does assessment kill creativity” is: it depends.” (p. 255)

• I find that there are a lot of conversations around questions, not just in education but in many important subjects, that are best answered with “it depends.” There are so many factors in the world that can affect the outcome to any problem – the individual could be the linchpin or the final straw, the factor that creates harmony or destruction, in any given subject. So these big questions, despite my desire of a “right answer”, seem to be unanswerable.

“Creativity is 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.” (p.255)

“The judgement of creativity depends on the context (e.g., a language arts classroom, an after-school poetry club, an international poetry concert) and the stakeholders in that context (e.g., the classroom teachers, a group of fellow poets, a panel of international poetry experts).” (p.255)

“We want our students to be able and willing to solve problems, create products, and contribute ideas that are novel and useful in any given situation.” (p. 255)

• This “pedestrian or everyday creativity” (p. 255) moves students towards one of the end goals of education – creating functions members of society.

• In the creative process, the article talks about the divergent stage and the convergent stage (p. 256). I know these stages well from working on anything from school work and recreational projects. It’s almost surprising to me that there is an actual label for the brick wall I hit when I’m working on recreational things. The examples given, “comparisons to others, concerns about how they might be evaluated by the teacher, or whether they have found the best solution to a problem” (p. 256) are all too familiar to me. The convergent stage is the one I associate with school work the most, since my completion of tasks is directly linked to me passing my courses. I still make hit brick walls when it comes to these tasks, but I find my way through them or over them with the extrinsic motivation of grades. If I applied self-imposed “grades” on my recreational work, would I be more inclined to finish it or would it lose its appeal?

• As I read the section on the “performance goal structure” (p. 258), I am reminded of the first few weeks in the education program. Walking into a classroom where you either passed or failed, there was no real in between, was a culture shock.  For most of my schooling, everything was based on grades. Even if the teacher wasn’t the one to initiate comparisons, the students would find out their peers achievements and then put their own up against it. In some of my classes, my favourite moments were when my student number and percentage were put on the board as the highest in the class. It meant I was better than everyone else in that room, and for someone who has spent a portion of their life not feeling like they were worth much, it was a huge achievement. And it wasn’t all that lasting. The next assignment would come, and I would put my mental health through the ringer, trying to churn out the best product I could and not really focusing much on what I was learning. Even now, I find it difficult to ask for help and can admit that there is some self-sabotaging that likes to slip in when I’m not looking.

“…a master goal structure is represented by goal-related messages that focus on self-improvement, skill development, creativity and understanding. [The assessment practices] provide students with useful information and feedback on how they are progressing relative to their own prior achievement.” (p. 258)

• This is what all students need. FreshGrade or See-Saw (the program my nephew and niece’s school uses) is the perfect tool for this. Not only do you get to show the student’s their progress, but you open up the opportunity for parents as well. I believe whole-heartedly in this kind of assessment. When they see how well they’ve done, how much they’ve learned and grown from their first day in class, it can change their whole perspective of themselves. It’s not to say that this is for everyone, though. As the article states, “not all students experience the classroom environment in the same way” (p. 258). Take, for instance, my best friend and I. We’ve known each other for most of our lives, have gone to the same schools, been in most of the same classes, and have a lot of similar interests. The way we learn is vastly different. She is more inclined to the performance goal structure – she needs to have that concrete letter grade that shows her progress – where as I thrive in mastery goal structure. I want to know that I’ve improved upon myself, not others.

• So, it’s student perception of assessment? Say a teacher has two classes that they are working with simultaneously. In one classroom, Class A,  they are performance goal structured – they want to see everyone’s grades posted, so that they can compare to each other and see who is on top. In the other, Class B, each student is given a demonstration of their own personal growth. The assumption is that Class B will have more creativity in their environment than Class A. Who is to say that Class B won’t then compare letter grades once they have had a chance to see it for themselves? And couldn’t some of Class A be comparing their previous grades to the ones they more recently received? Is it really on the students? Or is it on the teachers? Is it what we assign, the tests that we give, part of the cause of these anxieties or the creativity?

“… though win-lose competitions seem to undermine creativity, evidence has shown that competition can have a positive effect for some individuals and work teams.” (p. 260)

• There is a movement out there where competition is taken out of a lot of activities. Apparently, it is meant to motivate the children involved, to allow them to all celebrate their achievements and participation. But what happens to these children when they are put into an environment where competition is a part of every day life? And does it always undermine creativity? I have seen people come up with very creative ways to gain the upperhand.

I don’t feel its so much the assessment that kill creativity as it is the classroom environment. As it has been stated in the article, not every student learns in the same way, so to state a question that pits assessment and creativity against one another is to lead the reader into believing that there is an answer when, as is also stated in the article, there is not. It all comes down to assuring a safe environment, a sense of community, within the classroom. Whether a student is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, the classroom needs to be a place where they feel that their opinion, their preference is welcome. While not all needs can be met (we cannot give students information on their peers), with each students, we can find a happy medium that will allow them to feel safe.

“Time counts and keeps countin’, and we knows now finding the trick of what’s been and lost ain’t no easy ride. But that’s our trek, we gotta’ travel it. And there ain’t nobody knows where it’s gonna’ lead.”

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, 1985

Bibliography

Beghetto, R.A. (2005). Does Assessment Kill Student Creativity?. The Educational Forum, 60(3), 254-263.

Miller, G. (Producer/Director), & Ogilvie, G. (Director). (1985). Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome [Motion picture]. Australia: Warner Bros.