This paper deals with assessment issues pertaining to digital creativity in educational contexts. Following a short introduction about the concept of digital creativity, the first part of the paper discusses tensions and challenges in its assessment- rooted on the complexity of the interplay between creativity and digital technologies. The focus is then turned on teaching competences for digital creativity from an assessment perspective. Presented are areas and components of the DoCENT framework for digital creative teaching competences, related to the assessment of the teaching and the learning process - namely the areas “creative assessment” (i.e. the use of digital strategies to assess students' creativity), and “learners' digital creativity” (i.e. the competences required to enhance students' digital creativity). A way to operationalize the DoCENT framework for self-assessing purposes through rubrics tool under the five-level conscious competence learning model is then proposed. Concluding remarks reflect on implications of the work presented for further research and study, outlining the need to explore the effects of assessing teaching competences for digital creativity on the promotion of students' creative mind-set.
teaching and learning should emphasize their connection [5, p.28]. Currently there is
consensus that the affordances of technologies may have a strong influence on
creative processes and achievements. Loveless for example, outlining the potential roles
of digital technologies in supporting creativity mentions that “digital technologies can
be tools which afford learners the potential to extend or enhance their abilities, allow
users to create novel ways of dealing with tasks which might then change the nature
of the activity itself, or provide limitations and structure which influence the nature
and boundaries of the activity” [
The notion of digital creativity expresses the concern to consider issues pertaining
to creativity and digital technologies in tandem. Broadly speaking it can be defined as
working creatively within a digital medium [
Dealing with assessment issues relating to digital creativity in educational contexts is complex and challenging. Difficulties in assessing digital creativity mainly emerge from the challenge to conceptualize creativity and digital technologies in tandem, and the complex interplay between the two notions.
The assessment of creativity per se involves tensions for different reasons, which
are mainly rooted both on the dispense notion of creativity and on decisions need to
be taken relating to the assessment purpose. Definitional challenges that may be faced
by educators trying to assess ‘creativity’ can be illustrated by the questions: Person –
is the student a creative person and have his/her learning experiences made thin/her
more creative? Process – is the process through which the person learnt or the product
was made creative? Product – is the essay or other piece of work creative? [
According to Henriksen et al. ‘the theme of creativity and assessment revolves around the challenge of navigating tensions in evaluating and assessing creativity’ [5, p.34]. Their study identifies the following dichotomous tensions: Psychometric vs. behavioral (i.e identification of psychometric characteristics of creative individuals, such as cognitive flexibility vs. behavioral measures such as alternative uses test); process vs. product (i.e. focusing on the learning process for creative solutions vs. focusing on the output of the creative activity); individual vs. group (i.e. how to engage students in collaborative open-ended projects that support creativity, while also assessing individual performance?); domain general vs. domain specific (i.e. whether creativity is located specifically within domains or whether it is something more general and extendable). Challenges that arise from decisions to be taken by educators in relation to these tensions include: Exploration and use of a range of alternative assessment formats and technics that consider how technology and creativity interact; Definition of criteria for assessing both the creative process and the product of the creative activity; Contextual challenges (e.g. formal-informal settings; disciplinarytransdisciplinary – multi-disciplinary contexts).
The assessment of students’ digital capabilities for creativity is no less challenging.
Starting points for the discussion of assessing creativity and digital technologies have
been offered by Jonassen [
For educators to be able to deal with assessment challenges for digital creativity, they
need to develop competences so as to undertake assessment tasks effectively
(achieving the desired outcome) and efficiently (optimizing resources and efforts). The
DoCENT framework for digital creativity competences – developed in the frame of the
DoCENT ERASMUS+ project – proposed a set of competences for digital creative
teaching [
Figure 1 here below presents the areas of DoCENT framework for digital creative teaching competences. Highlighted are areas and competences relating to assessment namely: a) creative assessment – i.e. the use of digital strategies to assess students’ creativity, and b) assessment of learners’ digital creativity – i.e. the competences required to assess students’ digital creative competences.
This section presents a proposal for operationalizing the DoCENT framework through rubrics for self-assessing competences for digital creativity. Rubrics are useful tools for formative assessment purposes, designed to clarify criteria and standards against which teaching and learning processes can be assessed.
Proposed here below are a) criteria for self-assessing the teaching and learning
process for digital creativity informed by the DoCENT framework of digital creative
teaching competences and b) mastery competence levels, informed by the five-level
conscious competence learning model [
Actively engage students in assessment processes which foster metacognition and critical thinking
evaluate students’ creativity encourage students to critically reflect on their learning path, competences, mistakes and progress Use a variety of assessment formats and approaches Use digital technologies to carry out formative and summative assessment (e.g., learning analytics) Apply criteria (e.g., fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration) for evaluating students’ little-c (personal) creativity
little-c (personal) creativity
Divergent and convergent thinking
experience, responsible risk taking, tolerance of ambiguity, learning from failure, and viewing challenges as possibilities for learning
4.2
The five stages of competence, or the "conscious competence" learning model, relates to the psychological states involved in the process of progressing from incompetence to competence in a skill. It involves Stage 1 - Unconscious incompetence (the person is blissfully unaware of their ignorance); Stage II – Conscious incompetence (the person aware of their skills shortage); Stage III – Conscious competence (the person is able to demonstrate their competence with a high level of concentration or focus); Stage IV – Unconscious competence (the person is able to demonstrate their competence with a low level of concentration or focus); Stage V – Shared competence (the person is able to teach others by explaining not only how but also the why’s to achieve a level of competency).
In conjunction to the above stages, the following items for the rubrics (relating to the mastery competence level) are proposed, illustrated in Table 3.
The above mastery levels can be used both for teachers’ self-assessment of the teaching process (see Table 1 for the according criteria) and for teachers’ assessing students learning process (see Table 2 for the according criteria) for enhancing digital creativity. 5
In this paper it has been outlined that assessing digital creativity in educational contexts is a complex task. Tensions and challenges in this endeavour are rooted on the dispense notion of creativity and on difficulties in conceptualizing creativity and digital technologies in tandem. In the view of these challenges, it has been argued that if teachers are to undertake assessment tasks effectively and efficiently, they need to practice competences relating to digital creativity assessment. Under this concern, we presented the DoCENT framework’s teaching competences for digital creativity relating to assessment issues. We also proposed a way to operationalise the framework for self-assessment purposes through rubrics– by illustrating criteria for assessing the teaching and learning process for digital creativity, and by proposing mastery competence levels informed by the five-level conscious competence theory.
The work presented in this paper should be considered as a preliminary step in facilitating the assessment of competences for digital creativity. The applicability and the feasibility for adoption of the proposed tool is yet to be seen through validation studies. Of interest would also be to explore teachers’ competence development path through the five-level conscious competence theory - for example to identify critical incidents that allow the progression from one mastery level to another in relation to competences for digital creativity and challenges in teachers’ mastering the reflective competence level. Finally, investigating implications of the proposed approach for assessing competences for digital creativity on the promotion of students’ creative mind-set would be an area for further research and study.