Evaluating Creativity

Evaluating Creativity (edited by Sefton-Green and Sinker)

Traditional certainties about value, quality and taste are not absolute, but socially contingent—a struggle for control over meaning—“taste classifies the classifier.”
(Pierre Bourdieu, 1984)

If art is about personal growth and development, then all that you can evaluate is the student, rather than the work. Is that a proper role for a teacher? Some would say no, but students seem to appreciate and expect teachers to fill that role. (Gilbert, 1989)

Evaluation is an inappropriate response to creative production (Ross et al 1993).
So then, how do you argue for the validity of arts in education? (Abbs, 1994).

(There was an increase in vocational focus in public education in the late 1980s and by the early 1990s educators were writing a lot of articles arguing about whether this was a good or bad thing. Most tried to argue it was bad)

Creativity is defined differently by each subject and this should connect with how ability and advancement are measured.

Contradictions arise most in the evaluation process, so what is the role/importance of:
-the process of making the project
-the project itself
-the evaluation of the project
-the audience
Some kind of acceptable balance must be struck.

There is an ongoing debate about the value of art in terms of what it brings to society and what it brings to the individual.

Society: development of empathy and insight, cultural heritage, enlightened populace
Individual: facilitates cognitive skills, helps people grow, think and feel

What does our film department want?
-what do we value? –what kind of rigor is expected in a student film?
-how does that affect the way we evaluate or assess our students’ work?

Evaluation: Often discursive, qualitative. Can be ambiguous, judgmental.
Assessment: Summative, quantitative. Often feels institutional, analytical.