Assessing Creativity Using the Consensual Assessment Technique

2011 ◽  
pp. 65-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Baer ◽  
Sharon S. McKool
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Creative Writing ◽  
Divergent Thinking ◽  
Research Proposal ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Assessment Technique ◽  
Consensual Assessment Technique ◽  
Creative Products ◽  
Assessment In Higher Education

The Consensual Assessment Technique is a powerful tool used by creativity researchers in which panels of expert judges are asked to rate the creativity of creative products such as stories, collages, poems, and other artifacts. Experts in the domain in question serve as judges; thus, for a study of creativity using stories and poems, a panel of writers and/or teachers of creative writing might judge the creativity of the stories, and a separate panel of poets and/or poetry critics might judge the creativity of the poems. The Consensual Assessment Technique is based on the idea that the best measure of the creativity of a work of art, a theory, a research proposal, or any other artifact is the combined assessment of experts in that field. Unlike other measures of creativity, such as divergent-thinking tests, the Consensual Assessment Technique is not based on any particular theory of creativity, which means that its validity (which has been well established empirically) is not dependent upon the validity of any particular theory of creativity. This chapter explains the Consensual Assessment Technique, discusses how it has been used in research, and explores ways it might be employed in assessment in higher education.

The Gold Standard for Assessing Creativity

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Baer ◽  
Sharon S. McKool
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Divergent Thinking ◽  
Research Proposal ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Assessment Technique ◽  
Creativity Assessment ◽  
Creativity Research ◽  
Consensual Assessment Technique ◽  
Creative Products

The most widely used creativity assessments are divergent thinking tests, but these and other popular creativity measures have been shown to have little validity. The Consensual Assessment Technique is a powerful tool used by creativity researchers in which panels of expert judges are asked to rate the creativity of creative products such as stories, collages, poems, and other artifacts. The Consensual Assessment Technique is based on the idea that the best measure of the creativity of a work of art, a theory, a research proposal, or any other artifact is the combined assessment of experts in that field. Unlike other measures of creativity, the Consensual Assessment Technique is not based on any particular theory of creativity, which means that its validity (which has been well established empirically) is not dependent upon the validity of any particular theory of creativity. The Consensual Assessment Technique has been deemed the “gold standard” in creativity research and can be very useful in creativity assessment in higher education.

Note on Consensual Assessment Technique in Creativity Research

2005 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 592-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Dollinger ◽  
Marina Shafran
Keyword(s):  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Slight Modification ◽  
Present Sample ◽  
Assessment Technique ◽  
Creativity Research ◽  
Consensual Assessment Technique ◽  
Creative Products ◽  
Product Creativity ◽  
Creativity Task

Amabile's Consensual Assessment Technique is commonly used in research on creative products. This study evaluates a modification of that technique which may facilitate research on creative products by calibrating nonexpert judges to expert judges in previous studies. University students ( N = 200; 59% women, M = 22.3 yr. of age, SD = 5.5) devised drawings to the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production stimulus. These drawing products were rated by five artist-judges using the CAT and five psychologist-judges who first viewed 16 examples of the range of drawings in a previous study, referred to here as the modified consensual assessment technique. The 20 ratings of product creativity loaded on a single principal component, and the mean ratings correlated .91. Finally, the correlations of these ratings with other measures of creativity were nearly identical. Thus, a slight modification of the technique may be useful in programmatic research when the creativity task is not modified across studies and participants are like the present sample rather than from groups with specialized training or artistic talent.

scholarly journals Divergent Thinking Ability + Interest = Creative Ideas: Exploring the Relationships Between Cognitive Creativity Assessments and Product Design Idea Generation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieun Kwon ◽  
Luke Bromback ◽  
Barry Kudrowitz
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
External Validity ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Divergent Thinking ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Assessment Technique ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Consensual Assessment Technique ◽  
Product Familiarity

The external validity of existing creativity tests was examined in the product-design field. To examine the external validity, this study adopted the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT), by which industry leaders directly rate product ideas for their creativity. A simple correlation analysis showed that among three broadly used creativity tests (Remote Associations Test, Alternative Uses Test, and Torrance Test for Creative Thinking), only the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) was found to predict creativity in the product-design industry. In addition to the correlations analysis, two factors, product familiarity and level of interest, were tested for moderation. The results show that familiarity with the product lessens RAT-CAT (Remote Associations Test - Consensual Assessment Technique) correlation, whereas level of interest strengthens the correlation. Thus, the less familiar and more interested an individual is in the product, the more likely the individual’s divergent thinking skills will translate into an actual creative product idea.

Creativity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Baer
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Divergent Thinking ◽  
Assessment Technique ◽  
Configuration Theory ◽  
Creativity Research ◽  
Consensual Assessment Technique ◽  
Assessment Of Creativity

This article reviews research and theory dealing with the psychology of creativity. It begins with a discussion of the most influential and widely known theory of creativity, which is based on the structure of the intellect model. It then considers four aspects of divergent thinking that are frequently mentioned in the literature, along with two models for classifying creativity: the “four P” model and the four C model. The article describes other theories of creativity, including the chance configuration theory, the propulsion model, and the five-factor theory of personality. Finally, it examines other important issues in creativity research, such as mental illness, gender differences, birth order, and IQ. It also looks at some of the approaches used in the assessment of creativity, including the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and the consensual assessment technique. Finally, it explores the issue of teaching creativity.

An Application of Amabile's Consensual Assessment Technique for Rating the Creativity of Children's Musical Compositions

2001 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maud Hickey
Keyword(s):  
Music Teachers ◽  
Subjective Assessment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Seventh Grade ◽  
Assessment Technique ◽  
Musical Compositions ◽  
Consensual Assessment Technique ◽  
Creative Products

Amabile has proposed that the most valid way to measure creativity is by using experts' subjective assessment of creative products—a technique she has labeled “consensual assessment.” The purpose of this study was to test the reliability of the consensual assessment technique on children's musical compositions and to determine which group of judges provides the most reliable ratings of creativity for music compositions of fourth- and fifth-grade children. The groups that were compared were music teachers, composers, theorists, seventh-grade children, and second-grade children. The interjudge reliabilities for each groups creativity ratings on 11 children's musical compositions were: composers, .04; all music teachers, .64; music theorists, .73; seventh-grade children, .61; and second-grade children, .50. Significant correlations were found between the music teachers and music theorists, and between the two groups of children. There were very weak or negative correlations between the composers' scores and the scores of the other groups.

Music Assessment in Higher Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 695-719
Author(s):  
Frederick Burrack
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Educational Assessment ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Music Assessment ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Assessment In Higher Education ◽  
Political Demand

A major factor shaping educational assessment in higher education has been public and political demand for accountability, which often focuses on improving efficiency and effectiveness. This chapter provides a historical background of assessment in higher education; an international perspective of how expectations of accountability influenced assessment of music in higher education; a review of philosophical foundations of higher education music assessment, accreditor policies, assessment frameworks guiding curricular practice, alignment of policy to documentation of student learning, and barriers that hinder assessment in practice; and implications for future development of higher education music assessment.

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