Hot Potato: Navigating Student Anxiety Around Grades
Medical students face considerable demands to deliver stellar grades in an effort to succeed as they transition from the UME to GME realm. In the era of increased pass-fail school-based and national assessments, students and educators alike are aware of diminishing graded assessments for students to distinguish and define themselves. As such, anxiety over grades, particularly in the clinical realm, is pervasive. Increased time is spent by both students and educators in discussing concerns around grading, distracting from the growth and learning opportunities in the clinical setting.
There is new literature describing the importance of psychological safety in the clinical learning environment as a way to balance the tension between the focus on grading and promotion of the growth mindset. The goal of this workshop is to propose ways to improve the psychological safety in the learning environment as a way to mitigate this anxiety around assessment. We will facilitate discussions of the origins of and experiences around grade anxiety and grade appeals. A model that highlights how supporting psychological safety in the learning environment can decrease student focus on grades and evaluation, and put the emphasis back on learning will be reviewed. Included in this will be a review of the threats to psychological safety, for both students and educators, including bias in assessment. We will then discuss best practices on prospectively creating a supportive learning environment for all key individuals and navigating the crucial and challenging conversations with supervisors and students around evaluations and grades.
There is new literature describing the importance of psychological safety in the clinical learning environment as a way to balance the tension between the focus on grading and promotion of the growth mindset. The goal of this workshop is to propose ways to improve the psychological safety in the learning environment as a way to mitigate this anxiety around assessment. We will facilitate discussions of the origins of and experiences around grade anxiety and grade appeals. A model that highlights how supporting psychological safety in the learning environment can decrease student focus on grades and evaluation, and put the emphasis back on learning will be reviewed. Included in this will be a review of the threats to psychological safety, for both students and educators, including bias in assessment. We will then discuss best practices on prospectively creating a supportive learning environment for all key individuals and navigating the crucial and challenging conversations with supervisors and students around evaluations and grades.