The consensual assessment of creativity in teaching: A study on creative ideas developed in real teaching context

The purpose of the present research was to develop a consensual assessment for measuring creativity in teaching. In Study 1, student teachers were asked to submit their most creative teaching ideas they had developed in their teaching practice. These ideas were then presented orally in front of groups of judges, who included student teachers, school teachers and lecturers. All judges had received simple briefing before conducting the assessment of the creativity of the student teachers’ presentations. Results showed that the agreements among judges were quite high. In addition, the feedback of judges and participants on the assessment method was very positive, thus provided evidence of the validity of the method. The same procedures were repeated in Study 2, which included only the written but no oral presentation of creative teaching ideas, and only student teachers were involved as judges. In addition, a self-evaluation measure on the creativity of teaching ideas was also developed and included to provide evidence on the concurrent validity of the consensual assessment method. Results of Study 2 were also positive, and thus lent further support to the reliability and validity of the use of the consensual assessment method in teaching. Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.