Authentic Assessment

"Because composition is an art with no specific universal rules of right and wrong, assessment must be flexible and open minded." This is the view posed by Daniel Deutsch in a journal article published by the National Association for Music Education. The article entitled Authentic Assessment of Music Composition- Feedback that facilitates creativity challenges assumptions about the role of assessment in a creative activity. (The full article can be accessed here).

Underlying the article is the principle that composing music is an activity which will evoke a personal response from individuals. Expressing thoughts and feelings through music is key to a learner's engagement with music composition and building an understanding about what their own compositional style and voice is. Also approaching composition as an individualised activity will contribute to the development of creativity skills such as curiosity, imagination, open-mindedness and problem solving as outlined in Education Scotland's "Creativity 3-18," impact report.

The challenge with the open ended nature of the composition is how effective assessment can take place. The article points to teachers developing an understanding of the young composers creative intentions as an important starting point. Feedback and open dialogue are effective means for helping a young person to shape their composition progress and understanding. Deutsch goes further than this by stating:

"Teachers can offer the same analytical rigor more effectively through respectful dialogue, interactive instruction, class discussion and written narrative assessments."

The dangers of using an assessment checklist is that it will generally not cope with the wide diverse range of music that composers will produce. Is there an effective checklist which can capture the nuances of song writing as well as the structural components of a sonata? It may be then, that the assessment tool becomes very generic and ultimately not fit for purpose. It is also important to recognise, as Deutsch states:

"Musical compositions are more than the sum of their parts."

In many ways through carefully established goals with pupils at the outset of their project can help to shape how the composition is assessed. Fundamentally, and returning to an earlier point, the teacher's role is to help young people shape their compositional intentions. Helping the learner to shape their intention at the outset will help determine the scope of feedback required.

The article also looks at the role of summative assessments and provides guidelines for written evaluations to support the next steps in the learners progress.

Deutsch concludes the article with this statement:

"Students are best served by assessment that provides momentum for future creative problem solving rather than by freeze frames that label success or failure with discrete descriptors."