How to Measure Creative Potential in Children and Adolescents

Todd Lubart

University of Paris Descartes, France

This workshop will provide a brief overview of issues involved in creativity assessment.  Then several existing measures will be compared.  The Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPoC) tool will be presented in detail.  New developments include measures in several domains (graphic, literary, scientific, mathematical, musical) and in several languages or cultural contexts. This instrument, the Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPoC 2009), is a new instrument that allows creative giftedness to be measured. It includes verbal and graphic sub-tests that measure the two key modes of creative cognition—divergent-exploratory thinking and convergent-integrative thinking—in elementary and middle-school students. Psychometric results concerning the instrument were developed, as well as an original, internet-based scoring system that enhances inter-rater reliability is under construction. The instrument, developed initially with a sample of French school children, can be used as an efficient diagnostic tool to identify creative potential and to monitor progress, using pre-tests and post-tests, in educational programs designed to enhance creativity. This instrument is available in six languages, including: French; English; Arabic; Turkish; German; and Portuguese. In the second phase of this project, the instrument will be available in other languages. This workshop enables you to learn more about the theoretical background, current practices and new theories relating to this field of knowledge.