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Project duration 01.05.2017 - 30.06.2021

EkK Music - Measuring and promoting the development of creativity in school

In this project we develop and validate a test for measuring creative competence among students in secondary school. A special focus is on music.

Project description

Aim of the project is the development and validation of a test to measure creative competence in the context of music in grades 6. and 7. This is connected with the question whether creative processes in the field of music can be described as competences.

Schwarz-grüne Kreise mit einer Musiknote und schwarzen Schriftzug EkK, sowie hellblauen Schriftzug darunter des Projektnamens Measuring Creative Competence in Music

Creativity can be understood as a personality-building resource and is a precondition for the accomplishment of numerous tasks in a constantly changing world of work and life. It shows itself in ideas, solutions, or final products, which must meet the criteria of novelty/originality and appropriateness/usability. Due to the traditionally strong orientation of creativity models to constucts of performance, creativity can also be described as a competence. Based on current theoretical approaches, a creative competence can be structured in three dimensions: general creative processes (eg convergent and divergent thinking processes), domain-specific components (eg expertise or expertise) and motivational dispositions.

The methodological approach follows the standards of competency test development. Testitems will be developed, tested and optimized. This process is supported by experts from university and school. The developed items will be piloted to approx. 1,600 pupils of grades 6. and 7. and then validated on a new sample with approx. 800 pupils. To test the criterion validity, more complex creative tasks developed by the expert group will be carried out and their prediction by the results of the competence test will be examined.

The final result of the project is a theoretically-based test instrument for the measurement of creative competence in the context of music at the beginning of secondary school level. The planned analyzes allow insights into the structure of musical creativity, the level and the spread of the competences in the first grades of secondary schools and the connections with relevant further aspects.

Lead researcher at IFS

Project management

  • Dr. Matthias Trendtel

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Location & approach

The most convenient highway exits are on the B 1/A 40 (Dortmund-Barop) (closer to the North Campus) and on the A45 (Dortmund-Eichlinghofen). The university is signposted at both exits. In the local road network you will find signs to Campus Nord, where the Campus Treff is also located. From Emil-Figge-Strasse, entrance no. 18 and from Vogelspothsweg entrance no. 23 lead to parking spaces near the venue.

From Dortmund main station, take the S-Bahn "S1" in the direction of Solingen on track 7 to the stop "Dortmund-Universität" (price level A). The S-Bahn runs every 15 minutes during peak hours on weekdays and takes about 6 minutes. From Düsseldorf, the S-Bahn runs every 30 minutes. Directly at the S-Bahn station you will find the CDI building, which houses the Center for Research on Education and School Development.

One of the university's landmarks is the H-Bahn, which has two terminuses on the North Campus. One is located directly above the S-Bahn station and is easily accessible from it by elevators. The other is located in the center of Campus North at the bridge between the University Library and the Mensa, right next to the Audimax. The H-Bahn runs from here to the South Campus and the Eichlinghofen district.

Dortmund has an airport connected with some destinations in Central Europe. There are regular flights, for example, to Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Katowice, Krakow, Leipzig-Halle, London, Munich, Nuremberg, Paris, Poznan, Stuttgart, Vienna and Zurich. For the approximately 20 kilometers from the Dortmund airport to the campus, you can take the bus to the main train station and from there the S-Bahn. Faster is usually the use of a cab. Far more international flight connections are offered by the Rhine-Ruhr Airport in Düsseldorf, about 60 kilometers away, which can be reached directly by S-Bahn from the university station.