Jo‐Anne Baird
Biographic Data
| ID | 6155160 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jo‐Anne Baird |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jo‐Anne |
| FAMILY NAME | Baird |
| SIGNATURE | BAIRD J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5974-3237 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Understanding students’ use of testing and rereading strategies for test preparation
To prepare for high-stakes testing, students often use rereading and practice testing strategies, two of the most widely used approaches to test preparation. This study investigated how students combine these strategies to maximise the effectiveness of their preparation. Participants were 152 third-year students at a teacher training college in China who reviewed 16 educational psychology concepts via an online platform. For each concept, student…
Test preparation in a high-stakes setting
This study investigated the transferability of the effects of testing (with and without feedback on performance) and restudy strategies on test performance in an authentic test preparation context. Three experiments were conducted in which students from a teacher training college in China reviewed educational psychology concepts using one of the strategies and took a post-intervention test. The design of the three experiments differed only in the…
Construct comparability and the limits of post hoc modeling
Construct comparability was investigated across different subjects in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP). A Rasch Partial Credit Model (PCM) was applied to historical assessment data to generate statistical measures of the relative “difficulty” of IB subjects and languages. Specifically, analysis centered on different language versions of literature assessments, where exams differ in content, but are designed to assess th…
Knowledge crises and democratic deficits in education
This Special Issue presents eight articles that seek to unpack cases of recent policy and practice which position knowledge in education in such a way that they create democratic deficits. The arti
Competence, competition, content and control
Assessment of all kinds plays a defining role in contemporary global society. In the field of education, as in other aspects of life, people and performances are counted, graded, evaluated and judg
What does success mean to you? Negotiating individual definitions of educational success within an examination-dominated regime of truth
The meaning of education success is a complex and contested question. In England, as in many countries, this question remains dominated by high-stakes summative assessment, resulting in perverse secondary consequences, detrimental to education itself. In this study, we asked six policy-makers, seven secondary-school teachers and 17 pupils what success meant to them. We extend Broadfoot’s four Cs framework of competence, competition, content, and …
The Impact of Test Preparation on Performance of Large-Scale Educational Tests
Background: Test preparation has been widely used to optimize test-takers’ potential on large-scale educational tests; meanwhile, people questioned its effect and raised concerns that it may narrow students’ learning. Methods: This meta-analysis provided a statistical synthesis of existing experimental and quasi-experimental studies on the effects of test preparation interventions on students’ test performance on large-scale educational tests. Re…
Standards as a social contract in curriculum-based qualifications
The theoretical literature on the meaning of qualification standards depicts a variety of definitions. Some definitions describe properties of examinees, whilst others rely on cohort-level or system-level characteristics. Different definitions can be compatible or contradictory. In this study, stakeholders’ views of the meaning of qualification standards in Scotland were collected, using focus groups (82 participants) and a questionnaire (918 par…
Foreword to the fiftieth volume
The very first issue of the Oxford Review of Education opened with this statement of intent from one of the Editors, Alan Bullock: Education has come to play so large and important a part in societ
Knowledge, expertise and policy in the examinations crisis in England
The Covid-19 pandemic suspended established practices that, in normal times, are seen as central to the functioning of education systems. For example, in England, school closures led to the cancellation of national examinations in 2020, and their attempted replacement with an algorithmic model. Following public outcry about what were seen as the unjust effects of the application of that model, there was a very public policy reversal, and examinat…
National qualifications in Scotland
Scotland, traditionally, has high levels of confidence in teachers. Fairness and justice are key concepts in policy and practice in Scottish education. For more than 100 years, the high‐stakes assessment system in Scotland, with the Scottish Higher qualification at its heart, has been crucial to that sense of opportunity and justice. However, in 2019–2020, public confidence in high‐stakes assessment in Scotland, as in other United Kingdom countri…
Assessment and learning loss in England
Disruption of the status quo caused by the pandemic in England provides a lens to view the priorities embedded in the qualifications system.The Government's initial priority was to avert grade inflation, followed by a populist turn to teacher assessment after a widespread backlash.Subsequent Government arguments for the return to examinations as the fairest way to assess re-introduced policies which emphasised excellence agenda.Learning loss, a c…
The impact of epistemic framing of teaching videos and summative assessments on students’ learning of scientific methods
The incorporation of epistemic aspects of science in science education continues to be a challenge for researchers and practitioners. The paper presents an empirical study investigating how epistemic framing of scientific methods can be incorporated in science teaching, learning and summative assessment, and what impact such framing has on student learning outcomes. The study was conducted with 969 secondary students taught by 152 teachers from a…
The SES equity gap and the reform from modular to linear GCSE mathematics
This article addresses whether the introduction of end‐of‐course, linear General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations changed the socio‐economic equity gap in England. The GCSE is a national examination offered in a wide range of subjects and taken by almost the entire 16‐year‐old age cohort. Between the years 2007 and 2014, it underwent a number of reforms to both the underlying curriculum and the examination structure. At the …
Predictability in high-stakes examinations
Key debates within educational assessment continuously encourage us to reflect on the design, delivery and implementation of examination systems as well as their relevance to students. In more recent times, such reflections have also required a rethinking of who is authoritative about assessment issues and whose views we seek in order to better understand these perennial assessment dilemmas. This paper considers one such dilemma, predictability i…
The reliability of public examinations
Test theories, educational priorities and reliability of public examinations in England
Much has already been written on the controversies surrounding the use of different test theories in educational assessment. Other authors have noted the prevalence of classical test theory over item response theory in practice. This Special Issue draws together articles based upon work conducted on the Reliability Programme for England’s examinations regulator, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. One strand of the work was meth…
The dearth of managerialism in implementation of national examinations policy
Introducing new national examinations is a complex, multi‐agency policy implementation. However, there have been some high‐profile problems in examination systems in recent years. This research investigated what 10 UK managers involved in the process thought were the main problems. Time pressures were recognised as a serious problem by the managers, as well as the politically driven nature of the reform. It is argued that network management expla…
Would the real gold standard please step forward
Debate about public examination standards has been a consistent feature of educational assessment in Britain over the past few decades. The most frequently voiced concern has been that public examination standards have fallen over the years ? for example, the so-called A level ?gold standard? may be slipping. In this paper we consider some of the claims which have been made about falling standards and argue that they reveal a variety of underlyin…
The Effects of Consistency of Performance on A Level Examiners' Judgements of Standards
One source of evidence used for the setting of minimum marks required to obtain grades in General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations is the qualitative, expert judgement of examiners. The effect of consistency of candidates' performance across questions within an examination paper upon examiners' judgements of gradeworthiness was investigated, for A level examinations in two subjects. After controlling for mark and individual examiner di…
Would the real gold standard please step forward
Debate about public examination standards has been a consistent feature of educational assessment in Britain over the past few decades. The most frequently voiced concern has been that public examination standards have fallen over the years ? for example, the so-called A level ?gold standard? may be slipping. In this paper we consider some of the claims which have been made about falling standards and argue that they reveal a variety of underlyin…
The Effects of Consistency of Performance on A Level Examiners' Judgements of Standards
One source of evidence used for the setting of minimum marks required to obtain grades in General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations is the qualitative, expert judgement of examiners. The effect of consistency of candidates' performance across questions within an examination paper upon examiners' judgements of gradeworthiness was investigated, for A level examinations in two subjects. After controlling for mark and individual examiner di…
The SES equity gap and the reform from modular to linear GCSE mathematics
This article addresses whether the introduction of end‐of‐course, linear General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations changed the socio‐economic equity gap in England. The GCSE is a national examination offered in a wide range of subjects and taken by almost the entire 16‐year‐old age cohort. Between the years 2007 and 2014, it underwent a number of reforms to both the underlying curriculum and the examination structure. At the …
Would the real gold standard please step forward
Debate about public examination standards has been a consistent feature of educational assessment in Britain over the past few decades. The most frequently voiced concern has been that public examination standards have fallen over the years ? for example, the so-called A level ?gold standard? may be slipping. In this paper we consider some of the claims which have been made about falling standards and argue that they reveal a variety of underlyin…
The Effects of Consistency of Performance on A Level Examiners' Judgements of Standards
One source of evidence used for the setting of minimum marks required to obtain grades in General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations is the qualitative, expert judgement of examiners. The effect of consistency of candidates' performance across questions within an examination paper upon examiners' judgements of gradeworthiness was investigated, for A level examinations in two subjects. After controlling for mark and individual examiner di…
The dearth of managerialism in implementation of national examinations policy
Introducing new national examinations is a complex, multi‐agency policy implementation. However, there have been some high‐profile problems in examination systems in recent years. This research investigated what 10 UK managers involved in the process thought were the main problems. Time pressures were recognised as a serious problem by the managers, as well as the politically driven nature of the reform. It is argued that network management expla…
The reliability of public examinations
Test theories, educational priorities and reliability of public examinations in England
Much has already been written on the controversies surrounding the use of different test theories in educational assessment. Other authors have noted the prevalence of classical test theory over item response theory in practice. This Special Issue draws together articles based upon work conducted on the Reliability Programme for England’s examinations regulator, Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. One strand of the work was meth…
Predictability in high-stakes examinations
Key debates within educational assessment continuously encourage us to reflect on the design, delivery and implementation of examination systems as well as their relevance to students. In more recent times, such reflections have also required a rethinking of who is authoritative about assessment issues and whose views we seek in order to better understand these perennial assessment dilemmas. This paper considers one such dilemma, predictability i…
The SES equity gap and the reform from modular to linear GCSE mathematics
This article addresses whether the introduction of end‐of‐course, linear General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations changed the socio‐economic equity gap in England. The GCSE is a national examination offered in a wide range of subjects and taken by almost the entire 16‐year‐old age cohort. Between the years 2007 and 2014, it underwent a number of reforms to both the underlying curriculum and the examination structure. At the …
The impact of epistemic framing of teaching videos and summative assessments on students’ learning of scientific methods
The incorporation of epistemic aspects of science in science education continues to be a challenge for researchers and practitioners. The paper presents an empirical study investigating how epistemic framing of scientific methods can be incorporated in science teaching, learning and summative assessment, and what impact such framing has on student learning outcomes. The study was conducted with 969 secondary students taught by 152 teachers from a…
Knowledge, expertise and policy in the examinations crisis in England
The Covid-19 pandemic suspended established practices that, in normal times, are seen as central to the functioning of education systems. For example, in England, school closures led to the cancellation of national examinations in 2020, and their attempted replacement with an algorithmic model. Following public outcry about what were seen as the unjust effects of the application of that model, there was a very public policy reversal, and examinat…
National qualifications in Scotland
Scotland, traditionally, has high levels of confidence in teachers. Fairness and justice are key concepts in policy and practice in Scottish education. For more than 100 years, the high‐stakes assessment system in Scotland, with the Scottish Higher qualification at its heart, has been crucial to that sense of opportunity and justice. However, in 2019–2020, public confidence in high‐stakes assessment in Scotland, as in other United Kingdom countri…
Assessment and learning loss in England
Disruption of the status quo caused by the pandemic in England provides a lens to view the priorities embedded in the qualifications system.The Government's initial priority was to avert grade inflation, followed by a populist turn to teacher assessment after a widespread backlash.Subsequent Government arguments for the return to examinations as the fairest way to assess re-introduced policies which emphasised excellence agenda.Learning loss, a c…
Standards as a social contract in curriculum-based qualifications
The theoretical literature on the meaning of qualification standards depicts a variety of definitions. Some definitions describe properties of examinees, whilst others rely on cohort-level or system-level characteristics. Different definitions can be compatible or contradictory. In this study, stakeholders’ views of the meaning of qualification standards in Scotland were collected, using focus groups (82 participants) and a questionnaire (918 par…
Foreword to the fiftieth volume
The very first issue of the Oxford Review of Education opened with this statement of intent from one of the Editors, Alan Bullock: Education has come to play so large and important a part in societ
Construct comparability and the limits of post hoc modeling
Construct comparability was investigated across different subjects in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP). A Rasch Partial Credit Model (PCM) was applied to historical assessment data to generate statistical measures of the relative “difficulty” of IB subjects and languages. Specifically, analysis centered on different language versions of literature assessments, where exams differ in content, but are designed to assess th…
Knowledge crises and democratic deficits in education
This Special Issue presents eight articles that seek to unpack cases of recent policy and practice which position knowledge in education in such a way that they create democratic deficits. The arti
Competence, competition, content and control
Assessment of all kinds plays a defining role in contemporary global society. In the field of education, as in other aspects of life, people and performances are counted, graded, evaluated and judg
What does success mean to you? Negotiating individual definitions of educational success within an examination-dominated regime of truth
The meaning of education success is a complex and contested question. In England, as in many countries, this question remains dominated by high-stakes summative assessment, resulting in perverse secondary consequences, detrimental to education itself. In this study, we asked six policy-makers, seven secondary-school teachers and 17 pupils what success meant to them. We extend Broadfoot’s four Cs framework of competence, competition, content, and …
The Impact of Test Preparation on Performance of Large-Scale Educational Tests
Background: Test preparation has been widely used to optimize test-takers’ potential on large-scale educational tests; meanwhile, people questioned its effect and raised concerns that it may narrow students’ learning. Methods: This meta-analysis provided a statistical synthesis of existing experimental and quasi-experimental studies on the effects of test preparation interventions on students’ test performance on large-scale educational tests. Re…
Understanding students’ use of testing and rereading strategies for test preparation
To prepare for high-stakes testing, students often use rereading and practice testing strategies, two of the most widely used approaches to test preparation. This study investigated how students combine these strategies to maximise the effectiveness of their preparation. Participants were 152 third-year students at a teacher training college in China who reviewed 16 educational psychology concepts via an online platform. For each concept, student…
Test preparation in a high-stakes setting
This study investigated the transferability of the effects of testing (with and without feedback on performance) and restudy strategies on test performance in an authentic test preparation context. Three experiments were conducted in which students from a teacher training college in China reviewed educational psychology concepts using one of the strategies and took a post-intervention test. The design of the three experiments differed only in the…
Psychology (10 works) · Student Assessment and Feedback (10 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Pedagogy (7 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (5 works) · Public relations (5 works)