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Assessing Creativity in Formal Education

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Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation
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Introduction

This chapter examines the challenges of assessing creativity in formal education. It does not consider the various ways of measuring an individual’s creative aptitude or potential using established mechanisms such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Instead, the focus is on presenting the components of creativity that can be clearly identified during a program of formal education in order to guide more robust assessment.

In many contexts, the notion of assessing creativity can be challenging. Much formal education has been predicated on rote learning and assessed through students’ ability to repeat what they have been taught. There are also contexts where this is not the case, for example, in arts education or where students are expected to analyze and think for themselves. However, only rarely has the latter been identified as creativity. What is clear is that in order to assess creativity, it is necessary to explain what it is.

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Correspondence to Tony Reeves .

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Houghton, N., Reeves, T. (2019). Assessing Creativity in Formal Education. In: Peters, M., Heraud, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2262-4_67-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2262-4_67-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-2262-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2262-4

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