• Creating Task-specific Creativity Assessment Tools

The development of creativity is an expected outcome of integrated STEM learning and is also an indicator of high-quality education. Accurate measurement of creativity upon exposure to integrated STEM learning can serve as a reliable indicator of the success or failure of integrated STEM learning. Current methods of creativity assessment such as the Torrance Tests of Creativity (TTCT) and associated divergent thinking (DT) tests have been criticised to be domain-generic and may not accurately reflect creativity valued by specific domains. Furthermore, creativity has been argued to be a dynamic phenomenon that tests such as the TTCT and DT tests fail to measure accurately. To consider disciplinary peculiarities, this study adapted the Scientific Creativity Test (SCT) by incorporating more domain- and task-specific elements to vertical farming-integrated STEM learning and trialled it with pre-service teachers. To measure changes in creativity over time, the behaviour of pre-service teachers when they were engaged with the integrated STEM activity was monitored through video recordings. Scoring of the responses of the adapted SCT revealed a decrease in creativity, but low sample size and “memory” effects meant that no meaningful conclusions were drawn. Behaviours associated with higher creativity were identified through the observation of behaviours during the integrated STEM learning. Findings suggested that the two creativity assessment tools should not substitute each other but are complementary. The SCT is suited as an easy-to-administer assessment for a larger number of students to measure divergent thinking abilities, whilst monitoring the behaviour of students during integrated STEM learning is suited for a smaller number of students and can shed light on more aspects of the student’s creativity such as confidence and the openness to ideas by others. Recommendations for future studies on the design of comparable SCT items and behaviour monitoring during integrated STEM learning were made.