Abstract
Assessing creative work is a complex issue in fine art education, particularly with the academy’s push toward the standardisation of assessment practices. This creates particular challenges for art educators such as defining creativity; balancing assessment of the person, the process and the outcome; identifying suitable assessment criteria; moderating subjective responses of assessors; providing feedback that does not inhibit future risk-taking, experimentation and creativity; and considering assessment for, as and of learning. This paper reports on a five-year curriculum and assessment project in the fine art undergraduate degree within an Australian university. The project was designed to provide greater clarity and transparency in the assessment of all aspects of creative and written works within the degree. Using case study and action learning methodologies, we found that assessing in fine art requires artistry and engaged dialogue. This dialogue must allow the language of the discipline to emerge and take into account the pedagogical purpose of assessment. When this process is systemically enacted across the curriculum of a program, assessment can move towards a fairer, more rigorous and transparent approach. We present a fine art curriculum and assessment framework that embeds the values of art educators and simultaneously acts within institutional requirements for assessment.
Highlights
We provide an overview of the role of assessment in higher education, and the tensions created by institutional requirements for assessment within a fine art educational context
This section reports on the process of the three major stages of the project and the decisions made by the team of art educators through teacher learning workshops relating to (i) identifying guiding principles for fine art curriculum and assessment design, (ii) mapping the five common elements or
To address the need for fairer, more rigorous, and transparent assessment practices in undergraduate fine art education, we have developed a Fine Art Curriculum and Assessment
Summary
We provide an overview of the role of assessment in higher education, and the tensions created by institutional requirements for assessment within a fine art educational context.In particular, we focus on the assessment of creativity because this presents the most challenging and nuanced aspects of assessment practices in fine art education.Assessment matters. There are three core functions of assessment: supporting learning, judging achievement and maintaining the standards of a profession (Joughin 2009). Good forms of assessment go beyond providing learners with the opportunity to demonstrate their achievements. According to Suskie (2004), good assessment practices should be guided by principles that provide useful, reasonably accurate and truthful information that is, valid and reliable; be fair so that students are given equitable opportunities to demonstrate what they know using methods that may vary depending on prior knowledge, cultural experience and learning requirements; be ethical and systematic; protect the privacy and dignity of those involved; and yield value that directly justifies the time, effort and expense that is put into the process According to Suskie (2004), good assessment practices should be guided by principles that provide useful, reasonably accurate and truthful information that is, valid and reliable; be fair so that students are given equitable opportunities to demonstrate what they know using methods that may vary depending on prior knowledge, cultural experience and learning requirements; be ethical and systematic; protect the privacy and dignity of those involved; and yield value that directly justifies the time, effort and expense that is put into the process (paraphrased pp. 18–30)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
