Exploring the Issue of Failure to Fail in Professional Education Programs: A Multidisciplinary Study

Abstract

There is a universal demand for well-prepared professionals in all disciplines, and society has entrusted professional schools with the task of preparing such individuals (Ralph, Walker, and Wimmer, 2008). Within this context, field or clinical instructors and university faculty have an academic and professional responsibility to teach, supervise, and evaluate students’ field or clinical experience to ensure that each graduate of their program is competent. However, there is evidence that some instructors and university faculty experience difficulty in identifying and making decisions to fail students who display incompetent or unsatisfactory practice (Bogo, Regehr, Power, and Regehr, 2007; Brown, Neudorf, Poitras, and Rodgers, 2007; Hawe, 2003). A qualitative descriptive design was used to explore the issue of “failure to fail” in professional programs including Nursing, Education, and Social Work. Results indicate that: (a) failing a student is a difficult process; (b) both academic and emotional support are required for students and field instructors/preceptors/ faculty advisors; (c) there are consequences for programs, faculty, and students when a student has failed a placement; (d) at times, personal, professional, and structural reasons exist for failing to fail a student; and (e) the reputation of the professional program can be diminished as a result of failing to fail a student. Recommendations for improving the quality of field or clinical experiences and support for students and field instructors/preceptors and will thus improve the quality of our programs and graduates are presented.

Evaluating Clinical Educators' Competence in an East Asian Context: Who Values What?

“…Thus, for the educators, their low ranking of assessment ability might be due to the relatively low confidence that clinical educators have in their assessment role (53). Indeed, clinical educators sometimes pass underperformance in their students (known as failing to fail): a difficult process tied up with educators' beliefs around self-efficacy (i.e., whether they have the ability to fail the student), their own knowledge and skills (e.g., whether they taught the student correct information, and in an appropriate way) as well as organizational constraints (the consequences of failing students on the organization, the program or fellow educators (53)(54)(55)(56). Furthermore, the process of assessment and feedback can sometimes have a negative emotional impact on the educator (15).…”

Exploring students’ satisfaction in the university learning environment: A study of newly introduced courses for state universities in Sri Lanka

“…There are failures reported in new educational programmes due to various reasons. When academic and emotional support is not provided to the students in the learning environment, there is a high tendency that students and course do not achieve the required goals satisfactorily (Luhanga, Larocque, MacEwan, & Danyluk, 2014). The universities which introduce new programmes must closely monitor the sustainability of the programme in terms of students' satisfaction which provide an opportunity to identify the issues in early stages.…”

Failure to fail: Fear of retribution or a response to neglecting the learner?

“…There is a need for clear guidance on what ‘fail’ means—particularly moving away from the negative connotations associated with the word. It is also necessary to support supervisors to better manage learners' reactions to failure 10 and to know how to remediate a learner to enable and facilitate their growth.…”