Breaking the Assessment Trap

Imagine education norms where students don't immediately default to an essay even when given options on how to represent their learning. Imagine having students don't instinctively retreat to the safety of what they've always known, flourishing and confident around producing assessment pieces that rely on imagination.

But that's not the reality in most cases, is it? It is not the reality for nearly every high school or university across the world.

I read and commented on a post recently from Jason Gulya lamenting that despite offering students choices like podcasts, videos, creative stories, or "whatever else they can imagine," most still choose to write traditional essays. My response was simple:

"They know the game. They are happy in the damp and dreariness of the assessment systems we have engineered for them."

The Comfortable Prison of Traditional Assessment

We have to admit this reality:

Students haven't failed us. We've failed them.

We've conditioned them through years of standardization, through NAPLAN, through rubrics, league tables and university entrance requirements. We've taught them that colouring outside the lines is risky, that the essay is a safe bet. It could even be argued that we have coached them in the essay writing skills to such a degree that expecting them to consider how or why they would really attempt anything else. We have proven the essay’s effectiveness and efficiency (although questions around whether the effectiveness and efficiency of essays benefits teachers more than students have to be asked). Some would argue it is quite cult-ish. So, let’s admit this:

Students are not lacking creativity – they're lacking permission to believe that creativity counts.

The GenAI Earthquake

But we have to face a new reality: The urgency to re imagine assessment isn't merely pedagogical anymore, it's existential. Generative AI has shattered the foundations of traditional assessment. The box standard essay, that bastion of academic evaluation… effortlessly generated by AI systems with a simple prompt. What was once a reliable measure of student thinking is now a tech commodity. If students continue retreating to essays in a world where chatbots can produce them in seconds, we're not just failing to nurture creativity, we're failing to develop unique human capacity for imaginative thinking which some would argue may be one of their only irreplaceable assets. The disruption forces of GenAI demands that educators not only redesign assessments but that we move swiftly from gradual adaptation to immediate revolution in how we conceptualise student output.

Radical Interventions for Immediate Change

If we want different outcomes, we need disruptive interventions. Not gentle nudges, but systemic ‘shoves’ that force new patterns of thinking and doing. Here's some ideas:

The Essay Ban

What if we simply removed the option? What if, for one term, the traditional essay was forbidden fruit? "You can create anything except an essay." Hardly revolutionary but on a grand scale, across a whole school, across a whole faculty, or by an assessment/exam board, that’s got to be impactful.

The Reverse Rubric

Instead of providing assessment criteria upfront, flip the process. Have students submit their projects, then collaboratively develop the criteria by which they should be judged. "What makes this podcast excellent? What would make it better?" Let them build the measuring stick after they've created the work.

The Real-World Pipeline

Create partnerships where student work doesn't just receive a grade but serves a purpose. Their podcast becomes an episode on a public channel. Their infographic is used by a local business. Their research brief informs community decisions. When work has consequences beyond a mark, the form it takes matters more.

The Assessment Lottery

At the beginning of a unit, students develop five different ways they could demonstrate their learning. The day before submission, they draw one at random. This forces preparation across multiple modes and prevents the safe retreat to essay writing.

The Collective Portfolio

No individual grades. The class is assessed on the diversity and quality of their collective outputs. "As a group, you need three podcasts, four videos, five visual projects, and two live performances." Let peer pressure drive creative risk-taking rather than conformity.

Beyond the Short-Term Shock

These interventions are deliberately jarring. They're meant to break patterns of thought that have calcified over years of educational conditioning. Trying any of these won't be comfortable. They'll be met with resistance. Some will fail spectacularly in the first instance. But if we fail to address this issue, then no matter what the consequences are, we will still be going round in the same washing machine cycle.

Let’s understand the main point here:

We're not just changing assessment practices. Instead, we are deprogramming students from a system that has taught them that safety lies in conformity, that the known path is the only path worth taking.

In the longer term, we need the kind of educational ecosystem I've written about before: Where AI and data work alongside human judgment to create truly personalised pathways, where learning isn't about checking boxes but about growth across multiple dimensions.

But we can't wait for that system to magically appear. In the meantime, we need to crack open the shell of conventional assessment to reveal what might be possible when students are not just permitted but required to imagine differently.

Because right now, they know the game too well. And it's a game designed to keep imagination firmly in check.

It's time to enforce changes to the rules.