Five dispositions model

The Centre for Real-World Learning model explores the following five core dispositions of the creative mind:

1. Inquisitive- Clearly creative individuals are good at uncovering and pursuing interesting and worthwhile questions in their creative domain.

• • Wondering and questioning

  • Exploring and investigating

  • Challenging assumptions

2. Persistent- Ever since Thomas Edison first made the remark with this we start this section has been repeatedly emphasized.

• • Sticking with difficulty

  • Daring to be different

  • Tolerating uncertainty

3. Imaginative- At the heart of a wide range of analyses of the creative personality is the ability to come up with imaginative solutions and possibilities.

• • Playing with possibilities

  • Making connections

  • Using intuition

4. Collaborative- Many current approaches to creativity stress the social and collaborative nature of the creative process.

• • Sharing the product

  • Giving and receiving feedback

  • Cooperating appropriately

5. Disciplined- As a counterbalance to the ‘dreamy’, imaginative side of creativity, there is a need for knowledge and craft in shaping the creative product and in developing expertise.

• • Developing techniques

  • Reflecting critically

  • Crafting and improving

This tool was designed so that the development of each of the 15 sub-dispositions could be tracked along three dimensions:

• Strength - This was seen in the level of independence demonstrated by students in terms of their need for teacher prompts or scaffolding, or congenital conditions

• Breadth – This was seen in the tendency of students to exercise creative dispositions in new contexts, or in a new domain

• Depth – This was seen in the level of sophistication of disposition application and the extent to which application of dispositions was appropriate to the occasion.

The Centre for Real-World Learning started this research and development with three questions:

1. Is it possible to create an assessment instrument that is sufficiently comprehensive and sophisticated that those teachers would find useful (the proof of concept)?

2. Would any framework be useable across the entire age span of formal education?

3. If a framework is to be useful to teachers and pupils, what approach to assessment should it adopt?

Here they give answers to these questions and offer some more finely grained reflections on what they found. The full report can be found on CCE's website.

1. It is possible to create an assessment instrument that teachers find useful and to this extent, the concept is proved.

2. The framework seems most useable between the ages of 5 and 14. Post 14 the pressure of examinations and the pull of subjects seems too great. Pre 5 early years teachers already have excellent formative learning tools for use in a curriculum that is much more playful and into which the development of creativity already fits easily.

3. We are clear that the primary use of the tool is in enabling teachers to become more precise and confident in their teaching of creativity and as a formative tool to enable learners to record and better develop their creativity.

Source: Lucas_(2012)_Progression in creativity_Developing new forms of assessment