LTA Connect: Compassionate Pedagogies - Pass/fail grading as compassionate assessment

Session Outline

There is increasing awareness of the need for relational and supportive practices for both staff and students to improve wellbeing and reduce inequality. In this talk, Vikki will introduce her research on pass/fail as a form of compassionate assessment that can reduce harm and anxiety. Theo Gilbert defines ‘compassion as ‘the noticing of social or physical distress to others and the commitment to reduce or prevent that distress’ (Gilbert, 2017,p189). Pass/fail could be considered a more compassionate form of assessment as it has been shown to reduce stress and competition, promote collaboration, encourage focus on feedback and improve wellbeing (Bloodgood, 2009; McMorran & Ragupathi, 2019, Current et al, 2024). Vikki will draw on her research from the QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project 2021 Belonging through Assessment: Pipelines of Compassion and QAA Collaborative Enhancement project 2024 Compassionate Assessment in HE to facilitate a session to explore the challenges and affordances of pass/fail for colleagues in Scottish Higher Education. Feel free to bring questions and provocations as there will be time to problem-solve collaboratively.

• Bloodgood, R. A., Short, J. G. , Jackson, J. M. & Martindale, J. R. (2009). A Change to Pass/Fail Grading in the First Two Years at One Medical School Results in Improved Psychological Well-being. Academic Medicine 84 (5): 655–662.
• Currant, N., Bunting, L., Hill, V. & Salines, E. (2024). Rethinking assessment? Research into the affective impact of higher education grading in Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 82-100 https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass/article/view/1496
• Gilbert, T. (2017). When Looking is Allowed: What Compassionate Group Work Looks Like in a UK University in Gibbs, P. (ed), (2017) The Pedagogy of Compassion at the Heart of Higher Education, Cham: Springer
• McMorran, C. & Ragupathi, K. (2020) The promise and pitfalls of gradeless learning: responses to an alternative approach to grading, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44:7, 925-938

Presenter

Vikki Hill is a Senior Lecturer in Learning Enhancement and Academic Development at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was a recipient of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in 2020. Vikki has over 20 years’ experience in education and leadership. Much of her academic development practice focuses on compassionate pedagogies, practices and policies to enhance social justice and she has led projects to enhance this such as Belonging Through Compassion (of which she is a co-author of the website), the QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project Belonging Through Assessment with Glasgow School of Art, Leeds Arts University and University of the Arts London and the current QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project, Compassionate Assessment in HE.

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