to reflect—those who are aware of what they know, recognize that what they know is always subject to change, and have the ability to undo and relearn knowledge. Therefore, they are able to revise their belief systems” (p. 47). Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005) go on to clarify the importance of the kinds of assessment that unlock creativity: “Self-understanding is arguably the most important facet of understanding for lifelong learning. Central to self-understanding is an honest self-assessment, based on increasing clarity about what we do understand and what we don’t; what we have accomplished and what remains to be done” (pp. 215–216). The development of our learners into thinking human beings depends on the presence of creativity in our classrooms.
About This Book
The purpose of this book is to offer very tangible ways we can use assessment processes to unlock creativity in any classroom at any grade level. The kind of assessment I will describe in each chapter purposefully invites learners right into the middle of creative decisions by simultaneously inviting them right into the middle of assessment.
Assessment is the key that unlocks the creative potential so many students have learned to suppress in school, are unaware they possess, or over time have convinced themselves never existed at all. When we embed assessment within the creative process, it invites students to consider decisions they are making in relation to personally meaningful goals. It invites us, as their teachers, to observe their progress and the actions they are taking so we can respond carefully.
When we decide to develop creativity within our classrooms, we may feel the pull between the messiness of exploration and the desire to protect both our own and our students’ sense of self-worth and need for control. We face the challenge of deciding what kind of feedback to offer every time a student shares a product with us; of determining to what degree we are going to ask him or her to re-enter the creative process, and to what degree we are going to let students make those decisions on their own. This process is complex and recursive, and we might not be familiar with this kind of complexity, this degree of revision, and this shift in the conversations we have about learning in our school system. Students, in turn, are used to a particular way of doing business when at school and often work on the premise of needing to get things done and complete tasks quickly. For this reason, if we are going to develop creativity in our classrooms, we need embedded assessment processes that help both teachers and students navigate the messiness of creativity. In making creativity flourish in our classrooms, we may first have to reconsider our assessment decisions and methods and examine how best to invite the kinds of assessment that actually support creativity in our learners.
Creativity and Assessment
Part of the challenge of this work rests in how we understand creativity—what it is, how it works, and how it is reflected in all areas of life. We can say the same for assessment. We may have two misunderstandings compounded exponentially and, as a result, both are sold incredibly short in our education system. Misunderstanding breeds misuse or omission. This is not only unfortunate but also outright dangerous. Educational psychologist Joseph S. Renzulli (2000) agrees, stating:
The sad fact remains that in spite of dozens of books about creativity, hundreds of research studies, and thousands of training programs and workshops, the development of creative potential is still largely an ignored aspect of a child’s total repertoire of acquired behaviors. (p. 15)
Without creativity developed using strong assessment processes, we cannot hope to develop learners who become deep thinkers, critical consumers, and empathic human beings.
Daniel Pink (2009) reminds us:
We know—if we’ve spent time with young children or remember ourselves at our best—that we’re not destined to be passive and compliant. We’re designed to be active and engaged. And we know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we’re clamoring for validation from others, but when we’re listening to our own voice—doing something that matters, doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves. (p. 145)
I cannot overstate the importance of engaging in creative experiences that encourage this active engagement and passionate pursuit of meaning. Getting there, however, may require us to reimagine our ideas about creativity and assessment.
Reimagining Creativity
Being creative can be messy, unpredictable, and downright uncomfortable. It takes time and an unrelenting persistence in working toward desired outcomes, regardless of the cost. It cannot be packaged and sold in sterile boxes, locked away from the real lives of our students. That being said, educators must acknowledge that regularly engaging in creative processes and the assessment that supports this way of doing business takes tremendous courage, as Joan Franklin Smutny, founder and director of the Center for Gifted, and her colleague S. E. von Fremd (2009) assert:
Creative self-expression in its most basic elements determines how life is experienced, how problems are perceived, how duties are performed, how instruments are played, and how visions are realized. It demands openness and spontaneity, as well as the courage to fend off unreceptive responses of hard-nosed or narrow-minded thinking. (p. 293)
This runs contrary to the design of our education system. Timelines and deadlines rule the day, and making time for discomfort and mess is unpalatable and seemingly impossible for many. However, the cost of not doing so is far greater. An education system void of creativity and the kinds of reflective and self-directed assessment that support it is a system that will fail to nurture learners’ long-term emotional, intellectual, and social needs. It is a system that limits the potential of not only students and teachers but also the societies of which they are a part. As education scholar Katie F. Olivant (2015) shares, “A dichotomy has developed between what societies need from education and that which the education system is providing” (p. 115). Without creativity and the kind of assessment that fully supports it, we cannot hope to develop citizens who look for new solutions to problems, who innovate in the face of challenge, and who explore their need for expression and wonder as a way to nurture their mental health. Even decades-old research by Carl R. Rogers (1954, 1961), Abraham H. Maslow (1954), and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990) finds that doing creative work is one of the most significant experiences of a person’s life. Our societies need more from an education system than simply revisiting information already discovered. Information is important, certainly, but inviting students to manipulate that information and reimagine it, revisit it, and build from it is critical for the health and growth of our societies as a whole.
To position the idea of creativity clearly in our thinking, consider the definition Sir Ken Robinson (2009) offers: “To be creative you actually have to do something. It involves putting your imagination to work to make something new, to come up with new solutions to problems, even to think of new problems or questions” (p. 63). Many people mistakenly believe creativity is limited to the arts, but Robinson’s definition of creativity shows us that the creative processes exist in every field. Another misconception is that creativity belongs to the gifted and is the result of building something from nothing. In fact, creativity can occur in everyday moments by everyday people. For example, during meal preparation, when a cook adds new ingredients to a tried-and-true recipe, he or she is exhibiting creativity, or when an adolescent tries a new strategy while playing a video game, he or she is taking a creative risk. Looking at existing ideas in new ways is a creative act. Imagining a new perspective or mode of expressing an idea that already exists is a creative event. Creativity is the fuel that drives exploration and wonder. Thinking in new ways, asking new questions, and imagining new outcomes advance all manner of learning. Olivant (2015) concurs:
Creativity is crucial to personal and cognitive growth and to academic success. It is a concept that continues to merit a central position in education but tends to fail to attain the appropriate attention and support of policymakers
