Dr. Martin Compton has been an educator for over 30 years, affording him ample time to realise that it takes a lifetime of teaching to get the hang of it. In that time, he has had the privilege of teaching children, young people and adults. His teaching has spanned secondary schools, international schools, further education colleges and universities both in the UK and overseas. Much of his early career teaching was focussed on equity-centred, widening participation projects where ‘open college’ qualifications offered alternative paths to university for adults failed by the conventional UK education system. His doctoral research focussed on unorthodox approaches to lecturer observation and he has long been an advocate for removing grading and evaluation from teacher observations. He ran a Masters level lecturer development programme for several years that proudly eschewed the conventions of grading in UK higher education and he has supported ungrading initiatives in his previous and current roles as part of an informal collective of academics that he co-founded known as the Freedom to Learn Group. In July 2023 he took up a post at King’s College London where he leads on curriculum and assessment design which means that much of his time currently is looking at ways in which the opportunities and threats of generative AI (as well as broader technological changes) will necessitate changes to pedagogy, assessment and feedback practices across higher education.

Teachers Going Gradeless contributor: https://growbeyondgrades.org/23-24-contributors

Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE) Fellow