Assessment revolution in music education: How arrangement assessment models are changing the way teachers evaluate creativity?

Abstract

This study addresses a significant gap in music education assessment by developing and validating a comprehensive, multidimensional framework for evaluating musical arrangements as an authentic creativity assessment tool in 21st-century music learning. Traditional assessment practices in music education have predominantly focused on standardized technical performance, neglecting systematic evaluation of students' creative and compositional competencies, particularly in the domain of music arrangement. Drawing on assessment-for-learning (AfL) principles and contemporary creativity research, the study employed a sequential mixed-methods design integrating three phases: expert-panel framework development using a modified Delphi process, psychometric validation through Many-Faceted Rasch Measurement (MFRM), and authentic classroom implementation. The study involved 48 music students and five expert judges at two institutions in Surabaya, Indonesia. The validated framework encompasses three interrelated dimensions—Technical Proficiency, Aesthetic Quality, and Pedagogical Appropriateness—operationalized through 11 assessment criteria refined through three rounds of expert consultation, achieving excellent content validity (S-CVI/Ave = 0.93). MFRM validation confirmed robust psychometric properties across all facets—student arrangements (reliability = 0.92), judges (reliability = 0.77), and criteria (reliability = 0.91)—with all criteria demonstrating acceptable model-data fit and minimal systematic rater bias. Classroom implementation over four weeks demonstrated substantial gains in student creative output, with large effect sizes across fluency (d = 1.06), flexibility (d = 1.04), and originality (d = 1.42) dimensions, alongside significant improvements in self-assessment accuracy and teacher formative feedback practices. The study contributes a validated instrument and an actionable implementation model for music educators. Key implications include enhanced capacity for rigorous creativity assessment, improved formative feedback quality, and a replicable methodology applicable to other performance-based assessment contexts in arts education.