Creative Partnerships Durham and Sunderland Creativity Wheel
Assessing Creative Development: A Teacher's resource from Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland
This framework will be of use and interest to schools that are in the process of developing creative learning and teaching across the curriculum, and contributes to assessment for learning and personalised learning. The Creativity Wheel assists teachers in tailoring their teaching towards pupil improvement, involvement and motivation, in addition to enabling individual, class and whole school self assessment of creativity and creative learning.
Why assess creative development?
The principal purpose of assessing creative development is to better understand pupils' needs for appropriate experiences that will promote and develop their creative behaviours.
Improved learning
Assessing pupils' creative development will contribute to improved learning by:
- Identifying and celebrating success in pupils’ creative development.
- Offering a structure for self-evaluation and assessment with the teacher which identifies areas for improvement by involving pupils in reflecting on their own learning.
- Enhancing the personalised learning profile for each pupil, which responds to the whole child.
Improved teaching
It will contribute to improved teaching by enabling teachers to:
- Track the types of creative development opportunities that pupils are offered.
- Identify areas of the curriculum where creative development opportunities are most and least likely to be offered.
- Reflect on this information and develop a range of creative opportunities across the curriculum.
- Develop opportunities for shared planning and delivery of creative opportunities with other teachers, other schools, and creative and cultural partners.
Whole school improvement
A framework for Assessing Creative Development will contribute to whole school improvement by:
- Enabling whole school review of the extent to which creative development is evident in learning and teaching across the curriculum.
- Developing a sense of vision and professional confidence in understanding what creative development in learning means.
- Contributing to the assessment for learning and personalised learning process, by helping teachers to tailor their teaching towards pupil improvement, involvement and motivation.
- Creating a climate in which reflective practice is valued for teachers and pupils.
- Celebrating innovation.
- Identifying areas of curriculum strengths and weaknesses in creative development.
- Identifying staff development needs.
- Conveying the importance of creative development to all staff, pupils, governors and external partners.
Pupil-centred
The Wheel is a tool for pupils and teachers to collaborate on in order to better understand pupils’ needs for appropriate experiences that will promote and develop their creative behaviour.
Individual responses
Each Wheel is different, and a completed Wheel should reflect the individual learner. Some will be neat and tidy, others might take a more creative approach, with sticky notes and pieces of work attached.
Whole curriculum approach
The Creativity Wheel can be applied to all subjects that are taught in school. It should not be limited to the subjects which have traditionally been seen as ‘creative’.
The Structure of the Wheel
The Wheel is divided into three sections or themes: ‘Imagination with a purpose’, ‘Originality’ and ‘Value’. These three sections respond to the definition of creativity promoted by QCA.
The Creativity Wheel was developed and written by Caroline Redmond on behalf of Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland with the help of staff and pupils at Westlea Primary School, Seaham, County Durham.
The elements of the Creativity Wheel resource pack are available electronically. Please send an email to creativitywheel@creative-partnerships.com with details of your school or organisation. Please indicate the format you require: pdf (4.63MB) or Word (722KB).
