A creativity rubric by Ric Nudell

A Blue Skunk Reader, Ric Nudell, in reaction to last week's post that wondered if creativity was assessable, wrote:

Your posts on this subject are interesting and thought-provoking. As a Digital Media teacher I do try to help students develop creativity (or creative approaches to problem solving.) So...I do need to give them feedback on it, i.e. assess.

I am attaching one of the rubrics I use with students. It is a synthesis of a lot of research about the characteristics of creativity/creative approaches and forms a framework for conversations. There is more elaborate documentation with it (isn't there always), but the rubric can probably stand alone.

Ric Nudell, Digital Media Arts Instructor
Barre Technical Center
Barre, Vermont 05641
www.barretechnicalcenter.org.

Posted with permission:

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Evidence of Creative Problem Solving Rubric (link to better formatted pdf)

Project: __________________________________________

Student: _________________________________________

Category	Indicators in Evidence
Generating Ideas	___ Fluency: generated many ideas ___ Flexibility: looked at problem in a variety of ways ___ Originality: ideas are different than what is already out there ___ Elaboration: adding nuance, making ideas richer ___ Symbolic  Thinking: making connections, comparisons, analogies
Digging Deeper into Ideas	___ Analyzing: thinking about what makes the idea(s) work ___ Synthesizing: putting one or more ideas together ___ Reorganizing/Redefining: modifying the original ideas ___ Resolving ambiguity: clarifying, focusing, refining ideas ___ Working with Complexity: building relationships, levels
Courage to Explore Ideas	___ Problem sensitivity: matching solutions to initial problems ___ Curiosity and Risk Taking: out-of-the-box ideas ___ Humor, playfulness, fantasy, feelings: inner emotional content ___ Integration of dichotomies: inclusion of opposing concepts ___ Growth: working with ideas/places that are personally new
Listening to One’s Inner Voice	___ Sense of purpose: reasons for choices ___ Persistence/Hard work: followed vision to completion ___ Rejects stereotypes: concepts move beyond stereotypes

Student: _______(date)                  Peer: ________ (date)                  Instructor: _______ (date)

Assessment:                   Excellent                  Good                  Fair                  Poor

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Ric, I am still thinking about this one. It's one of the most thoughtful attempts at measuring creativity I've seen. I really like that it is used, as you write, as "a framework for conversations." 

But my main question still persists: Do we really want to evaluate creativity in and of itself - or do we want to evaluate the impact creativity may have on the effectiveness of a product, a solution, or a task?

I'm guessing you will be asked by many for permission to use this tool!

Thanks again for allowing me to share.

Comments

[Ric Nudell]

Ah. Great question. The rubric jis ust part of the scoring on projects the students do. There is no 'creativity' assessment by itself. There is assessment of evidence of pre-planning, their demonstration of skills, did they take an approach that 'displays some of the characteristics of a creative approach', etc. RN

[Natalie Parker]

As a former classroom teacher, I think this is a great tool for evaluating creativity as a critical thinking tool. It's characteristics help weed out those ideas that are essentially learners spewing ideas in the name of brainstorming -- without actually putting any thought into what they are saying.