Assessing Creativity?

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In general there is a dearth of literature surrounding the use of rubrics in musical development. However, parallels can be drawn by looking at the development of creativity skills across other arts forms such as creative writing. In an article for the ‘English Journal,’ Linda Payne Young examines the benefits and drawbacks of using rubrics as way of measuring and assessing creativity. (You can access the full article here).

Opening the article, the author states, ‘Teaching students to be creative requires that teachers evaluate creativity effectively.’ Young then discusses the difficulties in measuring creativity and describes this as a ‘stumbling block,’ for teachers. There are a number of reasons cited for why this is a difficulty, and that teachers have turned to designing rubrics as a means to measure creativity. This can be flawed, however, as the focus of the rubric is generally on the product of creativity as opposed to the development of creativity skills learned during the activity. This failure usually manifests itself through poorly designed rubrics which do not clearly define the elements of creativity or what would constitute high or low scores. Clear definition of success is required otherwise students may fall short as they are unaware of the expectations of the assessment.

The author also looks at the question of whether we must assess creativity. I think this also an important point as it raises another interesting question. Do we value what we can measure? Or do we measure what we value? It is difficult in many senses to assess the development of creativity skills. In order to assess effectively, there needs to be a definition of what the creative skills are. It is then a case of unpicking these identified skills and analysing how these could logically develop. The author identifies the important aspect of the development of creativity skills, not in or about themselves, but rather that they can be developed and applied in different contexts. The process of problem solving for example can be equally applied in maths as science or history. This leads the author to the central point of this paper where:

‘teachers must believe in the premise that we are not assessing the creativity of the student or the product, but the student use of imagination and creative thinking in solving problems, creating an artistic product, or producing an imaginative performance.’

The author also argues that in devising rubrics, teachers need to base them on sound development theories and not just adapt ready made rubrics. In order to demonstrate, the author goes on to discuss Sternberg and the ‘Nature of Creativity.’

This is one of the only articles which I have come across which discusses process based rubrics as opposed to defining almost Grade Related Criteria to measure outcome. Although an article relating to creative writing, the key themes of the article can be transferred across art forms, and are applicable to composing music. The author highlights pitfalls in developing and using rubrics, but also comments that any poorly used teaching or assessment practice can have a negative impact.

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