Creative Blog Assessment

 The Value of Creative Assessments in Education


Creative assessments serve as a vital tool in evaluating individual creativity. Unlike traditional assessments, creative assessments encourage students to think outside the box, fostering problem-solving skills and a deeper investment in the learning process. I find that my students become invested in the process of learning and not just the outcome of the activity. 


Creativity encompasses a range of cognitive abilities, Including:

  • Divergent thinking and the ability to use creative constraint for generating new ideas

  • Connective thinking and the concept of mash-ups

  • Iterative thinking and the capacity for making revisions

  • Ideation and the ability to formulate new concepts

  • Original thinking

  • Lateral thinking and the idea of solving problems in a slower, more indirect way

  • Problem-solving

  • Hands-on prototyping

  • Communicating key ideas

  • Empathy

  • Inquiry and curiosity

  • Creative risk-taking

  • Experimentation and data gathering (Spencer, 2021)

The methods for creative assessment are diverse. When thinking about the creative assessment process, I think it is essential to encourage students to take risks, to try new things and to be empathetic. However, the effectiveness of these assessments depends on a well-designed curriculum. “One can have the best assessment imaginable, but unless the accompanying curriculum is of quality, the assessment has no use.” (Kohn, A 2011). Therefore, the curriculum needs to be valid and vetted. Here is a video that shows how creative assessment can be successful.


(Edtopia, 2023)

Equity is crucial in creative assessments. Assessments must be fair and impartial to validate various types of learning and evidence. (Montenegro & Jankowski 2017) highlight the importance of culturally responsive teaching, emphasizing social-emotional learning and development. They argue that “Assessment, if not done with equity in mind, privileges and validates certain types of learning and evidence of learning over others, can hinder the validation of multiple means of demonstration.” When using culturally responsive teaching we look at social emotional learning and development. We place emphasis on relationships and motivations. “Assessment tools and approaches that work for the majority of students but are less mindful of students identifying with groups outside of the majority population places a significant portion of students at a disadvantage, leads to a decrease in the quality of education, creates a disconnect between students and the institution, and contributes to achievement gaps” (Montenegro & Jankowski, 2017). 


In conclusion, I believe that creative assessments are the best type of assessment for my adult learners because they reflect real-life skills and promote personalized learning. These assessments engage my students in learning across various settings. Creative assessments also provide an approach that can accommodate the unique needs of all students. The transfer of knowledge is more significant when using creative assessments. Creative assessments also encourage independent thinking and authentic learning experiences. Additionally, creative assessments support different types of disabilities and individualized learning.




References 

Edtopia (2023, July 14). Taking a playful approach to assessment. 

https://www.edutopia.org/video/playful-assessment-approach-elementary/



Kohn, A. (2011). The case against grades. Alfie Kohn. https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/ 


Montenegro, E., & Jankowski, N. A. (2017). Equity and assessment: Moving towards culturally responsive assessment. (Occasional Paper No. 29). University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).


Spencer, J. (2021, February 20). We want students to be creative, but how do we assess this? John Spencer. https://spencerauthor.com/creative-assessment/

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