Success and Failure in Professional Education: Assessing the Evidence

This text focuses on one aspect of an examiner’s role -assigning a fail grade. The context is vocational training where success confers competence to practice a profession with pupils, patients or clients who place their trust in the knowledge, skills and conduct of the professional. The guide is intended to help academic and work-based assessors make good judgements. It explains the reasons why failing is so difficult, looking at the individual, institutional and contextual factors involved and paying particular attention to the feelings of anxiety and guilt that interfere with decision-making. Specific coping strategies are suggested for each stage of the assessment cycle. These cover eliciting, interpreting and acting upon the evidence in a way which respects the rights of assessors and students. The book has a positive approach which views failure as a natural part of life and learning.