Heloisa Pait, a sociologist and professor in São Paulo, Brazil, grew up with two very different models of grading: a mother who marked exams decisively with a red pen and a father who turned the evaluation of his architecture students’ work into a celebration. Years later, confronted with grading her own students, Heloisa developed an approach that draws on both traditions while challenging conventional ideas about authority, achievement, and intellectual independence.
Everyone presents, everyone appraises, and everyone shares in the affirmation of one another’s work.
— Heloisa Pait
At our next free online Community Gathering, Heloisa will join us to explore what happens when students become participants in judging their own learning—and what assessment practices reveal about the cultures and institutions in which they operate.
Drawing on her experiences in Brazilian higher education and her broader scholarship on media, communication, and democratic life, we'll consider questions like:
What changes when students publicly assess their own work rather than simply receive a teacher's judgment?
Why might grades serve different purposes—and carry different meanings—in different educational cultures?
How can classrooms cultivate intellectual independence while maintaining rigor and high expectations?
What can self-assessment teach us about recognition, belonging, and participation in a democratic society?
As artificial intelligence changes the production of academic work, how might we help students develop and exercise their own judgment?
Heloisa's perspective is also featured in our forthcoming book, Beyond Grades, in her chapter "Festival of Grades: Public Self-Assessment as Rite of Passage." Combining personal history, classroom experience, and sociological reflection, she invites us to see assessment not merely as a way of measuring achievement, but as a moment when students can begin to claim their place in a larger intellectual community.
Her episode of the Grow Beyond Grades podcast is scheduled for release Sunday, November 1. We encourage you to listen before the gathering and bring your questions!
Please RSVP to let us know you are coming. And help us spread the word!