Social-environmental factors can have a profound effect on students' intrinsic motivation and performance. Yet, extrinsic constraints need not always be detrimental to performance. It must be noted that the strategies commented below only account for open-ended, creative tasks for which there is more than one possible approach or problems for which there is more than one possible solution. When there is only one correct solution and creativity is not the goal, the imposition of extrinsic constraints, such as expected evaluations or rewards, can actually improve the performance of the task.
In the pamphlet, Creativity and Learning, Dr. Beth A. Hennessey and Dr. Teresa M. Amabile provide a number of instructional strategies that can actually hinder creativity:
Have students work for an expected reward
As teachers, each one of us has offered students a reward for accomplishing some task. We set up these reward contingencies because we believe that they will motivate our students to work to the best of their ability. Of all the methods for killing creativity, this one has received the most attention. Its counterintuitive nature has fascinated investigators for quite some time now, and the evidence is clear. The expectation of reward can actually undermine intrinsic motivation and the creativity of performance. Without a doubt, the reward that has received the greatest amount of attention has been monetary payment. Yet, this is not the only form of reward that has had negative effects. A wide variety of rewards has now been tested, and everything from good-player awards to marshmallows produces the expected decrements in intrinsic motivation and creativity of performance.
Earlier investigations concentrated on the effects of reward on motivation, and each points to the same conclusion: for students who initially display a high level of interest in a task, an expected reward decreases their motivation, undermines the globally assessed quality of their performance, and makes them much less likely to take risks or to approach a task with a playful or experimental attitude. However, creativity appears to result from just this sort of risk-taking and uninhibited exploration.
Set up competitive situations
If you want to be absolutely certain that your students' motivation and creativity will be undermined, set up a situation in which they must compete among themselves for some desirable reward or another form of recognition.
Have students focus on expected evaluation
When faced with an upcoming evaluation of their performance, students are likely to adopt an extrinsic motivational orientation. Their focus is turned away from the intrinsically enjoyable aspects of the task itself, and the creativity of their performance is undermined.
Use Plenty of Surveillance
In some instances, even unspoken evaluations of performance, have had negative consequences. The mere presence of a watchful audience can be all it takes to undermine intrinsic interest and creativity of performance. If you want to lessen your students' chances of coming up with creative solutions, make your presence felt at all times. Watch their every move, and shift their focus away from evaluation of their progress.
Set Up Restricted-Choice Situations
There is little research on how children's creativity might be affected by restricting their choices of how to do an activity. The intrinsic motivation principle of creativity, of course, would suggest that such restrictions would undermine creativity.
In the article, Does assessment kill creativity? Dr. Ronald A. Beghetto examines research on the relationship between assessment, motivation, and creativity to answer this question. It seems that the best answer to this question is that it depends. Creativity and motivational researchers have found that certain assessment practices have a strong influence on motivational beliefs that can, in turn, undermine students' expression of creativity.
In the context of assessment, Dr. Beghetto defines creativity as the interaction among aptitude, process, and environment by which an individual or group produces a perceptible product that is both novel and useful as defined within a social context. He lists a number of assessment practices that diminish creativity:
Display only the best work or chart student progress on a highly visible chart
By displaying only the best work or by using charts to make social comparisons, teachers communicate to students that outperforming others, rather than self-improvement, is the reason for engaging in achievement-directed behavior. This goal message is quite different from the message sent by assessment practices that stress understanding and self-improvement.
Motivational researchers have categorized environments created by teachers' goal-related messages into types: performance goal structures and mastery goal structures. A performance goal structure is represented by goal-related messages that stress the importance of avoiding mistakes, besting others, getting the highest grades, and demonstrating one's ability in relation to others. Assessments in classrooms with a performance goal structure primarily make comparisons among students (e.g., rank students by ability and emphasize who's best, smartest, or most capable). Empirical evidence suggests that students within such classrooms have an increased likelihood of adopting maladaptive motivational beliefs and engaging in performance-avoidant behaviors.
Conversely, a mastery goal structure is represented by goal-related messages that focus on self-improvement, skill development, creativity, and understanding. Assessment practices in classrooms with a mastery goal structure are used to provide students with useful information and feedback on how they are progressing relative to their own prior achievement. Empirical evidence suggests that students in mastery goal structured classrooms are more likely to adopt healthy motivational beliefs and mastery-oriented achievement behaviors, including enhanced interest in learning, more positive attitudes toward learning, attribution of failure to lack of effort (rather than to lack of ability), high levels of academic engagement, perseverance in the face of challenges, more risk-taking, and asking for assistance when needed.
Minimize Social Comparisons
Student creativity is fostered when teachers minimize the use of assessments in making social comparisons. When students focus on self-improvement, they are more likely to take risks, seek out challenges, and persevere in the face of difficulty. Conversely, when assessments are used to pit students against one another, there is a greater chance that some students will attribute their performance to factors over which they have little control, e.g., natural ability or luck. As a result, students are more likely to give up or, worse yet, not even see the point in trying because they feel they can never be as talented or lucky as those to whom they are being compared.
Minimize the Pressure of Assessment
If students feel pressured by evaluative surveillance, monitoring, and other salient features of assessment, their willingness to express creativity will suffer. Teachers are advised to reduce the stress and anxiety that may accompany assessment, particularly during the divergent phases of the creative process when students need freedom and comfort to generate novel ideas.
Focus on Informational Aspects of Assessment
Teachers should ensure that assessment results are informative and useful. By simply refocusing the emphasis placed on test scores and letter grades to the information contained within those results, teachers can help students gain useful insights from assessments.
Because students' creative expression is intrinsically motivated, it can be undermined when teachers place too much emphasis on grades, scores, and other achievement rewards. Teachers need to help students focus on learning, understanding, and mastery of tasks rather than on grades, scores, and other external rewards.
Recognize Risk-Taking and Creative Expression
When assessing students, teachers can protect creativity by recognizing and appreciating creative expression. This doesn't mean that teachers should throw out standards or provide empty praise for inappropriate ideas. If responses are not appropriate, teachers should provide suggestions on how students might adapt the idea so that it is useful while still preserving the novelty. For students to be willing to express their creativity, they must feel that their ideas-especially those that are unconventional-are welcome in the classroom. Teachers play an instrumental role in shaping students' perceptions of whether creativity will be tolerated. Evidence has suggested that students who perceive their teachers as caring, accepting, interested in them, courteous, and professional, are more likely to express their creativity.
In addition, I have also provided a synthesis from the articles shared from this site on setbacks in creativity.
Source: Beghetto, R. A. (2005). Does Assessment Kill Student Creativity?. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 254-263.