Can elementary school teachers assess students’ creative problem solving abilities?

Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 146, pp. 104644

Abstract

The extent to which teacher assessments reflect students' abilities in creative problem solving, i.e., the ability to produce original, complete, and practical ideas, was examined. 610 Dutch students from 4th to 6th grade were assessed with two tasks. The alignment between teachers (N = 26) and trained raters (N = 2) was studied for both absolute assessments and the relative ordering of students' scores. The main finding of this study was that elementary school teachers were able to assess creative problem solving in a relative way. Teachers' creative problem solving assessments were not affected by students’ gender or academic achievement.

Authors 4

1. Mare van Hooijdonk corresponding

   Radboud University Nijmegen

   Affiliation as printed

   Radboud University, Behavioural Science Institute, PO Box 9104, 6500, HE, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

2. Tim Mainhard Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University, Educational Sciences, PO Box 9555, 2300, RB, Leiden, the Netherlands

3. Evelyn H. Kroesbergen

   Radboud University Nijmegen

   Affiliation as printed

   Radboud University, Behavioural Science Institute, PO Box 9104, 6500, HE, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

4. Jan van Tartwijk

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Utrecht University, Department of Education & Pedagogy, PO Box 80140, 3508, TC, Utrecht, the Netherlands