Can the assessment of creativity help pupils to develop as creative learners

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Can the assessment of creativity help pupils to
develop as creative learners?

• Sara El-Hassani

Communication and Participation Networking Event
02 July 2008
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WHY?

• There is a close and necessary relationship
  between what we choose to assess and what we
  value most in the education of our children
• Marten Shipman, in a lecture to the Primary Ed.
  Study Group, 1987
• Todays learners know that to achieve the
  targets they have been set they must stay on the
  straight and narrow paths of conditioned and
  measurable conformity, whilst todays teachers
  are beset with contradictory messages regarding
  the breadth and balance of the curriculum
• Grainger, Barnes and Scoffam, 2004
• Craft notes there is as yetlittle research on
  the recording and assessment of creativity in the
  literature
• Craft, 2004

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Conflicting agendas

• Summative assessment v. Creativity
• Consequences
• The danger of an off the shelf solution, such
  as The Creative Curriculum, providing easy but
  unsatisfactory answers which are still about
  jumping through hoops
• Tensions for the class teachers leading to
  tensions for pupils and the wrong provision

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Why is it important to resolve the situation?

• So that pupils can have some control over their
  own creative learning and development
• So that teachers can effectively and confidently
  integrate creative approaches into their daily
  planning
• So that teachers can be secure in the knowledge
  that what they are doing is having a positive
  impact on pupil learning

5
A case study approach

• A range of methodologies
• Semi structured interviews
• Participant observation
• Content analysis
• Triangulation
• Reliability
• Validity

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The project schools

• School 1
• A multi-ethnic inner city Leeds primary school
  (3-11) with great commitment to creativity and
  assessment for learning, but facing great
  challenges in terms of socio-economic deprivation
  and meeting required education targets
• School 2
• A multi-ethnic inner city Wakefield primary
  school (3-11) with great commitment to creativity
  and assessment for learning, and achieving well
  in relation to the targets set by the local
  authority.

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The participants

• Six pupils from each of the two key stage 2
  classes in each of the two primary schools and
  the adults who work with them in the classroom
  (for each stage of the research)
• (Content analysis will also be made of the
  documentation and outputs produced by children in
  the Foundation Stage.)

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Issues raised for further consideration

• The best title (to include primary aged
  pupils?)
• Re aims, difficulty of defining creativity,
  learning and personalisation instead looking for
  meaning through practice
• Foundation Stage practice in assessment and
  creativity
• Boys achievement
• Data collection software to help with analysis
  of data
• Interview questions for pupils and staff
• Literature review extending the literature
• Extending my knowledge of other research, both
  national and international