Nurturing student creativity through assessment for learning in music classrooms

Abstract

This article reports research that identified and analyzed assessment for learning strategies employed by six Canadian music educators to support and develop student creativity. Findings include descriptions of creativity-nurturing practices organized into four categories: (a) developing assessment criteria, (b) encouraging creative processes, (c) optimizing the classroom context, and (d) activating self-assessment. Results include detailed descriptions of strategies that educators can employ to leverage formative assessment to nurture student creativity within and beyond music education contexts.

Nurturing Musical Creativity through Assessment for Learning

“…In this article, we draw from recent research conducted with practicing music educators to identify how formative assessment-also known as assessment for learning (AfL)-can serve as a powerful and effective tool for supporting creativity in classrooms. 26 AfL refers to an ongoing process of teachers interacting with students to gather information about their learning. Teachers use the information formatively, to guide teaching strategies, thereby embedding assessment as foundational to the learning process.…”

“…A model can offer touchstones along the creative journey to help students engage with feedback at various stages. 46 Furthermore, teachers can guide students in accessing the model as a shared framework and for language to generate peer feedback: 47 "As you're providing peer feedback, check in with the process model. Is there a particular stage you could offer some feedback about?…”

“…To mitigate the potential negative impact of evaluative assessment, we encourage teachers to (a) where possible, carve out space to enable and support creative work that will not be graded; 65 (b) delay evaluative assessment until the end of the creative process; 66 (c) find ways to value students' creative intentions within evaluative frameworks; 67 (d) consider selfassessment evidence as part of grade decisions; and (e) emphasize formative assessment (AfL) instead of summative. 68 Strategies such as cultivating a safe space through careful teacher and peer feedback, building relationships with students, demonstrating teacher enthusiasm for creative work, and avoiding grades can help students feel confident enough to take risks and think divergently toward original creative outputs. These strategies can also help students to feel comfortable sharing their work.…”

A multidimensional approach for enhancing and measuring creative thinking and cognitive skills

“…The intention is that these novel environments will reflect the dynamic, nonlinear, adaptable, and iterative ways in which the creative thinking process occurs in real-world creative thinking experiences and across a range of domains (Mumford and McIntosh, 2017;Botella and Lubart, 2019). The intention is also that these dynamic and novel environments will enhance the motivation of participants, improving the learning and measuring of creative thinking skills (Rosen and Tager, 2013) and the likelihood that the skills will transfer to real-world applications (Beghetto et al, 2014;Bolden and DeLuca, 2022). Perhaps most importantly, these novel task environments allow for expanded opportunities for participants to learn and demonstrate their creative thinking skills.…”

“…The intention is also that these dynamic and novel environments will enhance the motivation of participants, improving the learning and measuring of creative thinking skills (Rosen and Tager, 2013) and the likelihood that the skills will transfer to real-world applications (Beghetto et al. , 2014; Bolden and DeLuca, 2022). Perhaps most importantly, these novel task environments allow for expanded opportunities for participants to learn and demonstrate their creative thinking skills.…”