Assessing ‘collaborative creativity’: An investigation into how we can evaluate collaborative creativity in a Year 9 KS3 music classroom

Assessment undertaken in schools should be valuable and worthwhile for students. In recent years, the pressures placed upon schools to improve performance have increased the pressure on teachers to assess frequently and summatively (Fautley, 2010). In my experience as a music teacher, assessing in this way does not always equate to success, worth or value for students. Although at GCSE and A-level, teachers are chiefly required to assess the creative product of an individual, we have significantly more freedom at Key Stage 3. This article is based in the context of a Key Stage 3 music classroom, in which students work to produce their own cover of an existing popular song in small groups. The growing popularity of movements such as Musical Futures has increased the study of popular music in schools, a genre in which music-making is commonly found to be a collaborative process (Green, 2002). For many music departments, popular music schemes of work are therefore typically based on mu