leaders. (p. 127)
Creativity is not simply about making something beautiful. Rather, it is about answering important questions, imagining possibilities, and solving challenging problems. By shifting our understanding of creativity, we can reimagine its place within our classrooms.
Creativity, in this sense, is a harkening back to the kinds of learning we did naturally when we were young. Smutny and von Fremd (2009) describe how students have lost this learning over time:
The creative world they lived in during their earliest years of learning as they touched, tasted, performed, molded, constructed, expressed, and explored their surroundings has lost its validity. They had to let it go in order to ply the more serious waters of skill acquisition and content mastery. (p. 5)
However, this loss does not have to occur. We do not have to choose skill acquisition and content mastery over creativity. Creativity, skills, and knowledge can develop simultaneously. They are interdependent, with each serving to advance the other. Slight changes in the kinds of questions we ask and the manner of assessing in which we engage can propel creativity forward, with skill development and content mastery being integral parts of the creative process. This is truly a win-win situation for students.
Reimagining Assessment
As we begin this conversation, just as we need to share a common understanding of what creativity describes, it is important to be sure there is clarity about the term assessment as it appears in this book. There are certainly enough definitions of this word to keep a teacher busy any day of the week. However, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005) define assessment as “techniques used to analyze student accomplishments against specific goals and criteria” (p. 337). This definition is a great starting point for exploring the kinds of assessment processes critical to unlocking creativity.
In order to develop our understanding more fully, let’s imagine the word techniques in Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) definition is interchangeable with the word processes. In Unlocked: Assessment as the Key to Everyday Creativity in the Classroom, we will explore a number of assessment processes a teacher can apply each and every day to develop learners’ creative potential. These include, but are not limited to:
Through these processes, educators can nurture critical skills such as striving to seek new solutions, building stamina for multiple attempts, and developing strategies to engage in purposeful revision for each and every learner.
The word analyze is also critical in our understanding of assessment, because by analyzing artifacts of student thinking, we as educators can ask further questions, consider options, and make decisions about next steps. It is important to be clear about the criteria against which we measure success and challenge, and the act of analyzing performances and products is an essential part of the creative process. The key is to realize that students could conduct this analysis just as often as teachers could. When both teacher and student undertake the analysis, they deepen thinking and support the opportunity for further exploration.
The last part of this definition that needs some attention is the phrase against specific goals and criteria. Both goals and criteria for success are critical for learning and expressing oneself creatively. Students must ultimately own the goals and criteria, and teachers can use the forms of assessment in the preceding list to guide them in setting and reflecting on progress toward those goals.
Engaging in assessment processes that advance and nurture this kind of personal meaning making and creative exploration for students will ensure that we protect both assessment and creativity, not as add-ons, but as major players in new kinds of learning within our schools. In fact, deeply considering the relationship between assessment and creativity is the key to maximizing their potential and developing the very human beings who engage in these processes. Assessment and creativity are deeply and intimately connected and are critical to the development of enriching and complex learning experiences.
When working together, assessment and creativity have the potential to change the world both within and beyond the classroom. Together, creativity and assessment enhance the relationship between humans and their inner landscapes, fostering the search for new questions, new ideas, and new connections. They invite our students to think about solutions to problems greater than themselves and consider the needs of others and the world as a whole. When educators nurture creativity and assessment in their classrooms, they invite students to enhance the quality of their lives by moving past the mundane and the usual, and encourage them to look deeper, search wider, and explore multiple perspectives. When assessment fuels creativity, students move toward and through learning they didn’t anticipate when they began. They set new goals and ask new questions, which move them in new directions. Without assessment, creativity stops, and without creativity, our classrooms stagnate, locked into routines.
While this book focuses on the kinds of assessment processes that move creativity and learning forward (formative assessment processes), it is important to note that assessment of learning, or summative assessment, is also part of the creative process. There is a time when students finish brainstorming, exploring prototypes and scenarios, and adjusting, and learners are ready to verify whether the products and processes in which they engage accomplish their desired goals. Teachers will work alongside learners to take part in this verification, and it is from this process that students ask new questions and set new goals, and new learning emerges. This is exactly how assessment becomes part of learning and creativity, instead of sitting outside of it.
Many books that explore creativity imply but rarely name let alone unpack the process of assessment in terms of its essential relationship to creativity. Society has come to view assessment as separate from learning, and we have to rectify this if we are going to unlock all kinds of deep thinking, including creativity. Instead of assessment being something we do to learners, it has to be something we educators do with learners or something learners do with our guidance and support. Creativity comes from the creator. It is a very intrinsic process. As a result, the more often we can place responsibility and ownership with the students doing the creating, the better they will develop and refine these skills for the long term.
To be clear, using assessment to unlock creativity is not the same as assessing creativity, nor is it assigning creativity a value to use as a grade. It is about using assessment to invite deeper and original thought—to advance creativity. Assessment, in this context, means that we need to put the learning in the learners’ hands and invite them to determine what they hope to accomplish and how they plan to do so.
How This Book Will Explore Creativity Through Assessment
Unlocked is based on my experiences as a classroom teacher, as a community art instructor, and as a teacher of teachers. It is grounded in the belief that only when learners own their learning
