Workshop presented at ETAQ Seminar 1, 2016.

1. Creativity and Assessment
Dr Kelli McGraw: QUT
ETAQ Seminar 1, 2016
[ABRIDGED SLIDES]

2. Some ways to demonstrate creativity:
Student
completes a
piece of
creative
work
Student
answers
questions
about what
they’ve
created
Student
keeps a
record of
the creative
process
e.g. short story;
poem
e.g. presentation;
viva voce
e.g. process diary;
portfolio with drafts

3. ‘Soft Skills’
Read more:
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/docs/Research/
P21_4Cs_Research_Brief_Series_-_Creativity.pdf

4. Some definitions of creativity:
‘The process of having original ideas that have value’
(Robinson, 2006)
‘A novel work that is accepted as tenable or useful or satisfying by a
group in some point in time’
(Stein, 1953)
‘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’
(Plucker et al., 2004)

5. Can creativity be assessed?
“Yes, you can assess creativity and innovation, but it has to
be done carefully.
First, let me be clear that I don't think students should be
given a grade for how creative they are. But they can and
should be assessed and given feedback on how well they
follow a process for innovation.
And I think it is possible to assess a product (not a student)
for creativity, so go ahead – if having a creative idea, product
or solution was one of the explicit goals of a project.”
(John Larmer, 2014, BIE Blog)

6. Some ways to assess creativity:
• Product judgement
Teachers or other adults evaluate actual student products (e.g. a poem)
via moderation and consensus, using their own implicit definition of
what is creative.
• Product rating
Teachers or other adults evaluate actual student products (e.g. a poem)
using criteria/rubrics.
• Self-assessment
Used in formative assessment to guide the development of student
thinking.

7. References
Larmer, J. (Feb 6, 2014). How can we teach and assess creativity and innovation in
PBL? BIE Blog.
http://bie.org/blog/how_can_we_teach_and_assess_creativity_and_innovation_in_pbl
P21 resources on creativity: http://www.p21.org/our-work/4cs-research-series/creativity
Plucker, J. A., Beghetto, R. A., & Dow, G. (2004). Why isn’t creativity more important to
educational psychologists? Potential, pitfalls, and future directions in creativity
research. Educational Psychologist, 39, 83-96.
Robinson, K. (2006). Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. TED Talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Stein, M. I. (1953). Creativity and culture. The Journal of Psychology, 36(2), 311-322.