Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Presentation Icons

Meal

Early Career Professional

Mid Career Professional

Senior Career Professional

Micro-Credential: Promoting Critical Thinking

Micro-Credential: Facilitating Small Group Learning

Micro-Credential: Promoting an Inclusive and Humanistic Learning Environment

Micro-Credential:Developing a Teaching Philosophy

Micro-Credential: Technology Integration in Didactic Teaching

Annual Session Program Fund

Meal

Wordly AI Translation & Captions

Wordly Session Captions

Evaluation

Assessment

A-008 - Failing to Fail: A Critical Barrier in the Pathway to Competent Care

Sunday, March 22, 2026

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Location: 520 A, Fifth Floor, Palais

CE: 1

Keyword: Educational Assessment (A)
SoTLFest Designation: No
LIAA Designation: No

Dharini van der Hoeven, Ph.D.

University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics

PDF
Vidya Ramaswamy, Ph.D.

University of Michigan School of Dentistry
Theodora E. Danciu, D.M.D., D.M.Sc.

University of Michigan School of Dentistry

The “failure to fail” phenomenon refers to faculty reluctance to assign failing grades to students who do not meet required competencies (a concern in health care education). This session examines this practice in didactic, preclinical and clinical dental education. Presenters will share findings from a nationwide survey of dental faculty, examining the issue’s scope and underlying causes. This session will also identify factors that contribute to the fear of failure and propose strategies to mitigate it in dental education. Addressing this topic is crucial as it holds important implications for patient safety and the competence of graduating dental professionals.

Learning Objectives:

Define the concept of “fear of failure.”
Identify the key factors that contribute to failure to fail.
Evaluate and apply effective strategies to prevent and address failure to fail in educational settings.