How Can Teachers Encourage and Assess Creativity?

(Originally titled “Assessing Creativity”)

In this Educational Leadership article, Montana-based author/consultant Susan Brookhart asks which student’s work is more creative: asked to write an acrostic poem on a small poster, a girl writes a school spirit poem using the letters of the school’s name (S for “super”, N for “nice”, etc.) and draws a perfect replica of the school mascot. A boy writes a poem using the first letters of his name: A for “agressive” (spelled wrong), N for “nutty”, and so on, and doesn’t draw a picture. The teacher praises the girl’s poster as excellent work and criticizes the boy’s because of the misspelled word and the fact that his lines sloped downward on the poster. 

“The assignment was a giant missed opportunity for both students,” says Brookhart. Her definition of creativity is original work of high quality. The girl’s poster was workmanlike but lacked originality (simple words, a carbon copy of the mascot). The boy’s work was original, giving a real sense of who he was, but needed work on quality (spelling and using a ruler to draw straight lines). 

“Myriad opportunities for fostering creativity are right under our noses in school,” says Brookhart, “because learning is a generative act. However, what’s missing in many classrooms is deliberately noticing and naming opportunities for creativity when they occur, giving feedback on the creative process, and teaching students that creativity is a valued quality.” Brainstorming is a great opportunity for creativity. So is coming up with a list of hypotheses in a science class. So is figuring out why a cup of coffee cools down and devising ways to keep it hot. So is composing an original song in music class or imagining how Tom Sawyer would be different if Huck were the main character. 

Brookhart presents a rubric for creativity based on students’ use of these key characteristics:

• Variety of ideas and contexts – Recognizing the importance of deep knowledge and continually working to learn new things; open to new ideas and actively seeking them out;
• Variety of sources – Looking for material from a wide range of media, people, and events;
• Combining ideas – Organizing and reorganizing ideas into different categories or combinations and then evaluating whether the results are interesting, new, or helpful;
• Communicating something new – Making an original contribution.

In addition, it’s important to be flexible and adaptive, using trial and error when unsure how to proceed, and viewing failure as an opportunity to learn.

“Assessing Creativity” by Susan Brookhart in Educational Leadership, February 2013 (Vol. 70, #5, p. 28-34), www.ascd.org; Brookhart can be reached at susanbrookhart@bresnan.net.

From the Marshall Memo #474