Perceived formative assessment practices in homework and creativity competence: The mediating effects of self-confidence in learning and intrinsic motivation

The aim of this study was to explore the impact mechanism of teachers' formative assessment on students' creativity competence. Herein, structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to investigate the potential mediating role of self-confidence in learning and intrinsic motivation based on large-scale longitudinal tracking data. The results indicate that, after controlling for pretests of creativity competence, socioeconomic status (SES), and gender, it was found that formative assessment practices have a direct and positive predictive power for creativity competence (the direct effect accounts for 39.4 %). Furthermore, formative assessment practices indirectly and positively predict creativity competence through the mediation of self-confidence in learning (the indirect effect accounts for 10.0 %) and intrinsic motivation (the indirect effect accounts for 50.6 %). We conclude that the main contribution from formative assessment to creativity may be in building an environment that fosters self-confidence in learning and intrinsic motivation.