Assessment and Creativity

This weeks post applies predominantly to education but is actually applicable in many areas.  So even if you're not an educator it should still be some food for thought.  The modern world is increasingly obsessed with assessment.  There is a firm desire to increase the level of education of students and it is largely seen that we need to measure every aspect of their ability, to create a detailed picture of what works, what doesn't and where our students are at, such that we may then know what to change to make it better.

The plain truth is that this doesn't work.  To put it bluntly, it is $#!%. All it leads to is more time spent assessing rather than actually teaching and an increased focus on how to do better in exams (both by teachers and students) rather than learning skills that will be useful in the real world.

The problem is, whenever you try to measure someones ability, focus will shift to the measurement as opposed to the ability and people will seek to game the system to maximise their score rather than improve their ability.

Assessment in it's current form is negatively affecting our students education and is largely inneffective at giving an accurate picture of someones actual ability.  This is an area that is ripe for some creativity.  We need to be creative and come up with new ways to manage our students. 

In my opinion, we need to change three aspects of assessment if we are to have a better system:

• Assessment schedules should be unknown/ random.  Students and possibly even educators should be unaware of when the assessment will be.  This will avoid the typical cram style of preparation.
• Assessments need to focus on different aspects.  In particular we need to get away from whether the students got the right answer or not and look instead at their approach.  Their approach is much more important than if they can get the right answer, from a long term point of view.  Done properly it can also encourage analytical thinking, experimenting and positive attitudes.  Which are all conducive to creative thinking and essential skills for success in the real world.
• Assessments should be reduced in number.  What we should be doing instead is finding better ways to motivate students to want to learn and explore and grow.  We need to empower them to do this then let them loose rather than bore them to death and stress them out with endless strict, narrow focused assessments.

But these are just my thoughts.  What we really need is some discussion around this.  So join in below and share your thoughts on the topic.  If you have a blog, feel free to write a blog post on the subject and leave a comment with a link to it as well.  Let's start the ball rolling and create a future where students become powerfull creative thinkers.

You're on your way to becoming a Highly Creative Person.