The One-Right-Answer-Mentality (Part Two)

Formative and authentic assessments as creativity builders

At the risk of grossly oversimplifying the wonderful work by Benjamin Bloom, Robert Marzano, Paul Black, Dylan William and other scholars, I would simply say that summative assessments, especially standardized tests are about ranking students (and their schools, teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, departments of education, ad infinitum). Formative assessments are tools designed to help students grow.

Formative assessments provide feedback to the teacher in real time so that they can, as Madeline Hunter used to say “monitor and adjust.” They let the teacher know where a student is proficient and where that student needs more help or practice. Unlike a summative assessment, no student is labeled a permanent C student or not performing at grade level. Intrinsic rather extrinsic motivation increases. They increase students’ self-knowledge and sense of personal responsibility for their own learning. The focus and philosophy is on growth with the understanding that time needed to master a skill is the variable, not a student’s genetic ability. It’s the kind of assessment I want my grandchildren’s teachers to use. Please.

Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (Nicol 2006) summarize seven principles of good feedback which is at the heart of formative assessment:

1. It clarifies what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);

2. It facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning;

3. It provides high quality information to students about their learning;

4. It encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;

5. It encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;

6. It provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance;

7. It provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape teaching.

It is, in essence, an informed dialog between the teacher and the student about what that student knows and can do. And it can be about conversations between and among students related to their learning as well - building relationship as opposed to destroying them as Kohn warns the competition inherent in extrinsic motivation - scores on tests - tends to do.

Authentic assessment, assessments that rely on performance, application of skills and knowledge, and collections of student work (portfolios), when used as intended are a powerful form of formative assessment. Authentic assessment means passing the driving part of the driving test not just the written test. And aren’t you glad people aren’t allowed to drive until they can demonstrate they can steer, brake, and drive on the correct side of the road?

Formative assessments can be done in a variety of ways. Judith Dodge, in her short, readable and informative guide 25 Quick Formative Assessments for the Differentiated Classroom (Dodge, 2009) categorizes four different types of formative assessments.

• Summaries and Reflections Students stop and reflect, make sense of what they have heard or read, derive personal meaning from their learning experiences, and/or increase their metacognitive skills. These require that students use content-specific language.

• Lists, Charts, and Graphic Organizers Students will organize information, make connections, and note relationships through the use of various graphic organizers.

• Visual Representations of Information Students will use both words and pictures to make connections and increase memory, facilitating retrieval of information later on. This “dual coding” helps teachers address classroom diversity, preferences in learning style, and different ways of “knowing.”

• Collaborative Activities Students have the opportunity to move and/or communicate with others as they  develop and demonstrate their understanding of concepts.

Thankfully, Dodge includes step-by-step instructions on specific activities that help teachers conduct these assessments.

Technology and formative assessment.

One of the most exciting ways I am seeing technology being used in today’s classroom is a communications tool - and formative assessment is about establishing dialogs, remember?

1. Student response systems. Whether dedicated devices like Senteos used with interactive whiteboards or personally owned student devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, netbooks) with response systems applications or using web-based feedback tools, immediate results can shown to the entire class or just viewed by the instructor. Among the more popular free tools now available are Socrative, PollEverywhere, GoogleForms, and  GoSoapBox.

2. Cloud-based tools used for collaboration and feedback. GoogleApps for Education among other products is an effective means of sharing work and providing comments.

3. Brainstorming tools. Nifty tools like Padlet, Mindmeister, and TodaysMeet allow online sharing of plans and ideas in real time. Tired of those sticky notes falling off your whiteboard?

4. Web-based creation tools. Animoto, Prezi, Wordle, VoiceThread and a multitude of infographic creators like Creately make professional-looking graphics and presentations relatively simple. Although we need to rememeber that just because something looks nice, doesn’t make it creative.

5. Cameras and microphones used to record performances. Many schools choose tablet computers rather than laptops for a simple reason - their built-in cameras and microphones let children communicate with photos, movies, and audio. But when kids record their own actions, these devices become formative assessment tools of the highest order. Hey, watching myself give a talk once when I played with the change in my pocket, improved my public speaking skill. Now that I always present with empty pockets.

6. Differentiation of instruction by providing digital learning materials that fit a variety of learning styles and reading abilities. Used in conjunction with content/course management system like Moodle, e-books, full-text data-based, and Open Educational Resources like Khan Academy provide rich materials and lessons for any ability level of student, both at school and at home.

7. Using online storage areas to curate, collect and share student work that becomes a portfolio.

Let’s go back to George with whom yesterday's blog post started. Had he the opportunity to explain to his teacher why he drew that carrot on his test page, his teacher would know that he understood the question, that he knows the properties of rabbits and their eating habits, and that he had the personal courage to offer a better, possibly more accurate answer to the question. George may possibly have felt supported in his divergent thinking rather than being penalized by it.

And he may be motivated to challenge authority in the future through a creative act or product.

Other ideas about using formative assessments to increase your student's creative risk-taking chances?

How do you use technology in day-to-day assessment of student learning?

Cartoon source

The One-Right-Answer-Mentality (Part One)

It is quite strange how little effect school—even high school—seems to have had on the lives of creative people. Often one senses that, if anything, school threatened to extinguish the interest and curiosity that the child had discovered outside its walls. - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

As a former librarian, I have never lost my desire to read aloud to an audience. While I have finally stopped using hand puppets (at least with adult groups), I still sneak a picture book into my workshops now and again. And one of my favorites in Miriam Cohen’s picture book First Grade Takes a Test (Cohen, 2006).

The book describes the frustrations and problem that arise when Danny’s class is given a test to determine who is might qualify for a gifted and talented program. During the paper and pencil normed test, he and his classmates find difficulty in answering questions like:

What do rabbits eat?
What do firemen do?
Which person in a drawing is taller?

Some students, based on their personal experiences, are stumped by the fact that their own “right answers” do not appear as choices. Despite even a student thoughtfully drawing in the correct answer to one question, the test selects a single student, Anna Maria, to be included in the pull-out program.

Ironically, the remaining children creatively resolve an argument over who received a larger cookie by weighing rather than measuring the cookies. And the teacher reminds the class:

The test doesn’t tell all the things you can do! You can build things! You can read books! You can make pictures! You have good ideas! And another thing. The test doesn’t tell you if you are a kind person who helps your friend. Those are important things.

If there is a simpler or more elegant criticism of standardized testing, I haven’t found it. Schooling the United States would be a happier and more effective place were all the employees of the Department of Education required to read Cohen’s little book. And discuss it. Maybe create a poster.

Combatting the one-right-answer mentality

Using testing as a primary (or only) means of assessing student ability has strangled the development of creativity in too many of our children. As we discussed in an earlier blog post, content knowledge and skills (craftsmanship) is a critical component of innovative ideas that have value. No doubt about it. But how do we balance this need for factual knowledge and basic skills with the demands of promoting divergent thinking?

First we need to acknowledge as educators that formative assessments are better learning tools than summative assessments, especially standardized tests.

Extrinsic motivation and a fear of taking risks

In his book Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn outlines the deleterious impact than extrinsic motivation - including test scores - has on learning. Through examples and research, he demonstrates five reasons rewards fail: rewards can punish those who do not receive them; rewards can rupture relationships between students and between students and teachers; rewards ignore the reasons for a desired behavior; rewards can discourage risk-taking, and rewards can actually discourage desired behaviors.

Wait a minute. Back up. Didn’t we also discuss that “risk-taking” is one of the hallmarks of a creative person?

Poor first-grader George in Cohen’s book, when confronted with the question of what rabbits eat on the standardized test, carefully drew a carrot on the test form since he knew from personal experience that a rabbit’s teeth needed to be constantly worn down by eating such foods. Not only did George get no credit from his original response, but he may believe the next time that such thinking not only earns him no reward (a good test grade), but punishes him for challenging the authority of the test itself.

Such aversion to risk-taking is common among all students, but especially among those that take pride in their scholastic accomplishments - those A students who have high academic goals and feel they need the straight As and high SAT scores to get into their choice of college (and remain members of good standing in a family who places high value on such measurements).

How likely is a child to write creatively when he knows his teacher gives top grades for formal writing? How likely is a student to suggest an innovative approach to research problem when the number of sources counts more than questioning those sources? Will a high school student take an elective art class knowing that she is sure to ace an academic class that requires little more than regurgitating textbook and lecture notes on the final but may get a lower grade in other electives that may take a more subjective approach to assessment?

This is not a small problem. This is a deep deficiency in how we determine student learning and abilities.

Image source Miriam Cohen's First Grade Takes a Test. Note current edition has a different illustrator.

Fanning the spark of creativity

All humans have an imagination - it's what separates us to a large extent from other animals. All human beings have the capacity for innovation. Human beings are inherently problem-solvers.

So why do we all not display creativity? Why do so many adults and children seem to take life as it comes rather than take circumstances into their own hands through creative thought and action?

It's because creativity, not matter how fierce, no matter how important, no matter how original, isn't worth spit unless it accompanied by some corollary skills that give it life. Creativity is often described as a spark. And as we know, sparks quickly burn out unless fanned into flames. It's this "fanning" work that creates fire as every good Boy and Girl Scout knows.

Donald Treffinger and his cohorts in his comprehensive guide Assessing Creativity: A Guide for Educators establish four "personal creativity characteristics": Generating Ideas, Digging Deeper Into Ideas, Openness and Courage to Explore Ideas, and Listening to One's "Inner Voice. The first two relate closely to divergent and convergent thinking - important but standard items included in most definitions of creativity.

But it is the third and fourth characteristics that we too often overlook in helping students develop their innovative potential. Treffinger defines them as:

The openness and courage to explore ideas category includes some personality traits that relate to one's interests, experiences, attitudes, and self-confidence. The characteristics in this category include problem sensitivity, aesthetic sensitivity, curiosity, sense of humor, playfulness, fantasy and imagination, risk-taking, tolerance for ambiguity, tenacity, openness to experience, emotional sensitivity, adaptability, intuition, willingness to grow, unwillingness to accept authoritarian assertions without critical examination, and integration of dichotomies or opposites.

The listening to one's "inner voice" category includes traits that involve a personal understanding of who you are, a vision of where you want to go, and a commitment to do whatever it takes to get there. The characteristics in this category include awareness of creativeness, persistence or perseverance, self-direction, internal locus of control, introspective, freedom from stereotyping, concentration, energy, and work ethic.

I would define these as dispositions or mindsets. And without them, the most wonderful creative spark will dim. 

Grit
Thanks to the TED talk by Angela Lee Duckworth, grit - or what might be called tenacity or perseverance - is becoming a popular educational term. "Grit scores," studies show, are more highly correlated to success than IQ. Getting kids to stick with a task, project, or practice is a vital component of creativity.

Empathy
Understanding the needs and viewpoints of others is a critical ability for many types of creativity. Authors understand the needs of their readers. Designers sense what has appeal. Good salespeople know what their customers want. And I believe there are ways to increase our capacity for empathy. 

Courage and Risk-tolerance
Creativity means doing things in new ways and understanding that the new is not always understood or appreciated, even widely criticized, especially when introduced. Having the will to continue in the face of disapproval takes courage and tolerance for risk. 

Self-esteem and Confidence
People with good opinions of themselves, who value their own ideas, who have confidence in their judgement are more likely to experiment. Much of this is gained by having success in the past, having good mentors and parents, and knowing just how much to bite off in any given enterprise.

Independence and Subversiveness
Let's face it, people try new things because they are not happy with the old ones. And many establishments and the people in them are pretty determined to keep things just the way they are. For both students and teachers, entrenched in a model of 20th century schooling, impatience with change engenders subversiveness - the active, but often disguised, actions deliberately designed to undermine "education as we know it." (Or business as we know it, or science as we know it, or art as we know it, etc.) My guess is you would not be reading this post if you weren't at least a little subversive yourself. Congratulations!

What other dispositions, mindsets, personal attributes to you see as critical to making creativity more than a quickly dead ember?