Over the past two decades, creativity has emerged as one of the core 21 st century learning objectives within K-12 education systems around the world. While some literature has demonised assessment as something that inhibits creativity, a growing body of research supports feedback-driven teaching -also known as formative assessment or assessment for learning-as an effective pedagogical approach across contexts and content areas. Given this empirical foundation, we propose that assessment for learning holds powerful potential for helping students to learn about being creative. To examine intersections of creativity and assessment in K-12 educational contexts, we carried out the scoping review study reported here, with the aim of advancing understanding of how assessment can support and promote creativity in classroom contexts. Fifty-one research articles were selected for review, based on inclusion criteria which required that articles (a) reported the collection and analysis of quantitative or qualitative data, (b) addressed K-12 classroom or extra-curricular contexts, (c) addressed the formative or summative assessment of creativity for pedagogical intent, (d) were peer-reviewed, and (e) were published in English. Analysis of the research revealed two dominant and consistent themes. Firstly, multiple studies indicated the importance of defined criteria for effective and useful creativity assessment within K-12 classroom contexts. Secondly, a number of studies identified the particular value of self-assessment and/or reflection in supporting creativity. We discuss implications of these findings in relation to educational policies and practices that seek to promote creativity, and areas for future research.

Arts-based knowledge translation (ABKT) is a process that uses diverse art genres (visual arts, performing arts, creative writing, multimedia including video and photography) to communicate research with the goal of catalysing dialogue, awareness, engagement, and advocacy to provide a foundation for social change on important societal issues. We propose a four-stage ABKT planning framework for researchers: (1) setting goals of ABKT by target audiences; (2) choosing art form, medium, dissemination strategies, and methods for collecting impact data; (3) building partnerships for co-production; and (4) assessing impact. The framework is derived from examples across sectors of the different art forms currently being used in ABKT, and discusses how researchers have attempted to evaluate the impact of their ABKT efforts. Ultimately, our goal is to provide a practical ABKT framework to assist researchers, but more work is needed to explore the four dimensions in practice.

The ability to construct shared meaning with peers is important for young children's social and linguistic development. Previous studies have mainly focused on shared meaning‐making within cooperative pretend play with little mention of other childhood activities that might promote intersubjectivity. This study investigated the group play that occurs within young children's open‐ended drawing activities and how this encourages the development of shared meaning. One preschool class of 4–5 year‐old children was observed over eight 1 hour free play sessions. During each session, the children were presented with a variety of drawing materials and large drawing surfaces. No restrictions were placed on the number of children that could participate, or the subject matter of the drawings. The findings support the notion that group drawing can be understood through theories of socio‐dramatic play. The children initiated and maintained shared meaning through the use of common knowledge, and applied various verbal and non‐verbal communication strategies to advance the joint theme. This study supports the integration of open‐ended drawing activities in early childhood environments.

Collaborations that lead to creative outputs occur within different group contexts and with diverse populations, including young children. Two cases of collaborative drawing are presented in this article to consider how young children engage in creative collaboration by negotiating meaning with others through openended group drawing. We conceptualize group drawing as a form of social play where children can advance personal creative abilities through interactions and shared understandings with others. The two cases derive from a study that examined young children's group play through drawing. A preschool class of 16 children (aged 4-5) was observed during free play over eight 1-hour sessions. Children were free to come and go as they pleased from an art station consisting of large drawing surfaces and a variety of drawing materials. Findings from the two selected cases suggest the development of shared meaning supports creative collaboration in group drawing situations, as children use a variety of verbal and non-verbal strategies to communicate their ideas. Implications are offered for early childhood educators and environments seeking to promote creative collaboration.

Background: Interest in using arts-informed approaches within research to increase stakeholder engagement is growing; however, there is little work describing how these approaches are operationalised across contexts. This article addresses that gap by exploring the use of arts-informed approaches across three projects.<br/>Aims and objectives: We explore how conceptualising research and evaluation as creative endeavours, particularly in arts-informed approaches to co-production, create opportunities to move knowledge into action (knowledge mobilisation). We propose an actionable configuration of context + mechanism = outcome (CMO) to understand the influence of arts-informed approaches to co-production.<br/>Methods: Multi-case design and cross-case synthesis was conducted of three studies that used arts-informed approaches. A common focus across our cases was evidence use in the K-12 education sector; however, each engaged with this focus by involving different types of evidence and sets of education stakeholders.<br/>Findings: Arts-informed approaches and co-production were influenced by a variety of contextual factors such as relationships between researchers and stakeholders, ethical issues of collaborative research activities, approaches to meaningful stakeholder engagement, co-production of knowledge, capacity-building support and resources, and communication between multi-stakeholder partners. Outcomes included new ways of thinking about research topics based on arts-informed approaches, more positive attitudes about co-production, more relevant and useful research and evaluation findings, and increased openness to future co-productive work.<br/>Discussion and conclusions: Four propositions arising from this article include: (1) arts-informed approaches address context specificity and sensitivity; (2) arts-informed approaches promote engagement; (3) arts-informed approaches enhance and intertwine skills; (4) arts-informed approaches broaden thinking about impact.<br/><br/>Key messages<br/>Arts-informed approaches address context specificity and sensitivity.<br/><br/>Arts-informed approaches promote engagement.<br/><br/>Arts-informed approaches enhance and intertwine skills.<br/><br/>Arts-informed approaches broaden thinking about impact.