Assessing creativity in an unhelpful climate

The increasing audit culture of quality in universities based on simplistic quantitative performance indicators of quality is the enemy of creativity. Hence issues of quality assessment are important, particularly in the face of the traditionalism of university teaching and examining, but in practice quality assessment has had little, if any, effect on this traditionalism. Instead it has led to a shift from unjustified total trust to equally unjustified total lack of trust and a corresponding shift from collegial to top down management. The latter is now so firmly entrenched in universities that the first step towards the general introduction of a component of creativity into university curricula (isolated examples of creativity can readily be found) may well require an academic revolt.

There have been aspects of creativity in the most traditional curricula even in the sciences for a long time, but really hopeful signs pointing to the introduction of aspects of creativity into whole curricula are in: <list list-type="bullet"> <list-item>

The move from teacher-centred to student-centred learning</list-item> <list-item>

The expression of this move in the form of problem-based and enquiry-based curricula</list-item> <list-item>

A move from positivist to interpretivist assessment and, in particular, assessment in general from unseen papers to portfolios</list-item> </list>