Do We Measure Students’ Creativity in Mathematics Through PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) and SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium)?

• In Event: Mathematical Thinking and Learning

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate if PARCC and SBAC offer opportunities for students to manifest their creative thinking abilities by including creativity-directed problems in their mathematics tests. Our results showed that these two tests offer students some opportunities to manifest their creative thinking skills by emphasizing some of the creativity-directed problems in their tests although not all creativity-directed tasks are available in every grade level of the tests. The findings of this paper are not only important because it shows the potential of the tests in terms of their inclusiveness of creativity-directed tasks, but it is important because it highlights the importance of assessment materials for developing students’ creative thinking skills in mathematics as assessment influences teachers’ instructional practices accordingly.

Authors

• Ali Bicer, Texas A&M University

• Aysenur Bicer, University of Wyoming

• Yujin Lee, Kangwon National University