All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Murray , Tony |
|---|---|
| Email: | tony.murray@dit.ie |
| Institution: | (blank) |
Creativity and assessment are sometimes referred to as the `core' business of third level education. A significant number of courses are specifically concerned with `creativity' and creative practice - Fine Art, Photography, Graphic Design etc. Yet despite this, there is little specific research into the policies, strategies and methodologies employed in the assessment of creative practice. The demand for the objective assessment of work, which may be actually subjective in nature, is not unusual in art or media education. However, many of those involved in the assessment of creative practice regard objectivity measurement as unattainable and somewhat of an oxymoron. The denial of assessors' subjective opinion and judgement is, at best, disingenuous and ultimately undermines the assessment process. The workshop will and explore and challenge national policies of implementing a common numeric-marking scheme (1 - 100) for the assessment and examination of all work, regardless of its natu re or discipline. I will argue that it is not possible to be numerically precise or wholly objective when assessing and examining work that is creative and subjective in nature. Awarding numeric grades to creative practice can therefore only be an approximation and not a definitive judgement as implied by the associated marking scheme. In addition, the thesis will argue, that in the absence of a agreed theoretical position and approximation as to what constitutes `creativity', it is therefore not possible to mark, with reliability, work that is creative and subjective in nature. The workshop will specifically draw on assessment practices of three courses offered by the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT): BA Fine Art, BA Photography and the BA Media Arts. However, the finding and workshop is not confined to those from the visual arts as the issues raised are pertinent to all academic staff and policy makers with an interest in assessment.
(Abstract ref: #6.)