Fostering creative thinking: how does assessment feedback impact on creativity?

Irene Visser

Creative capacity is valued not only an essential aspect of art and design education and practice, there has been an increasing demand for creative thinkers in all disciplines, as well as the work place. Recognised as a key graduate attribute, employers specifically recruit imaginative, creative thinkers as a means of solving many current and future global issues. Creative thinking is also considered an essential life skill, crucial to effective decisionmaking and negotiation. However, in universities, art education typically occurs within a learning context characterised by prescriptive tasks, set assignment criteria and prescribed deadlines, which can impact on students' confidence and desire to experiment and take risks. Creativity is often hindered by 'fixation', a term used to describe attachment to a limited set of concepts or possibilities as a result of drawing only on preexisting knowledge. It can also occur when students are overly focused on outcomes and grades. Grade anxiety and fear of making mistakes can prevent them from exploring a range of unknown possibilities, which would extend their practice and creative capacity. Through curriculum design and pedagogical approaches, educators can orchestrate conditions that influence student engagement and creative capacity - both negatively and positively. By creating a conducive atmosphere and designing activities and tasks that challenge, they have the power to encourage, develop and support creative confidence. Many students arrive at university with pre-existing skills acquired through routine interaction with ever-changing communication and media technologies, and a preference for collaborative and constructive learning, which challenges traditional, transmissive pedagogical models. Consequently, learning and assessment design which supports creativity also needs to take into account the shifting and diverse learning styles of current student cohorts. An action research project was undertaken in a practicebased design course to examine a range of pedagogical strategies and approaches to assessment, employed to motivate students to utilise and develop their creative thinking. The purpose of this small-scale study was to investigate the implications of various forms of feedback to consider which practices effectively encourage students to generate multiple ideas and actively engage in creative thinking and risk taking. Underpinning this approach is the notion of assessment for learning and as learning, as a means of encouraging creative thinking. Giving and receiving assessment feedback is a highly emotive and sometimes distressing process for both educators and students and this terrain can be difficult to navigate, particularly in a design arts context. The project offered a chance for the researcher to confront her own fears and discomfort around assessment feedback, as well an opportunity for students to have a voice and participate in their own learning. This led to the development of a number of strategies and processes that can encourage open communication to build rust and understanding- beneficial to both students and teachers. Additionally, it was clear that there is value in focusing on formative rather than 'defensive' feedback and developing a language hat empowers rather than diminishes our students' confidence, endeavouring to deliver comments that are authentic, useful and specific, while being honest without harshness.

Fostering creative thinking: how does assessment feedback impact on creativity?

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