This book investigates the education and assessment of student midwives in clinical practice, paying particular attention to how their practice is graded.

Chenery-Morris brings primary research, which explores students, mentors, and midwifery lecturers perspectives of practice learning and its assessment, together with the international literature on clinical knowledge, teaching and learning in practice and assessment of students drawn from a range of healthcare and education professions. Discussing how practice is graded, what constitutes valid practice knowledge, learning in clinical practice, evaluating practice learning and failing students, this book uses Basil Bernstein’s theories to throw light on how we assess and whether we should assess performance in addition to whether a student is competent to practise.

This is an important contribution to the field of midwifery education. It will also be relevant to those with an interest in practice education from a range of healthcare professions.