Gill Elliott

Elliott, G., Suto, I. and Walland, E. (2019). What makes researchers anxious? It’s Time to Talk about talking about research. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 27, 26-32.

Increasingly, workplaces provide accessible places and events for employees to discuss mental health issues. In the course of discussions in our organisation, researchers raised the issue of workplace activities that cause them anxiety – top of the list being giving presentations. This article describes a workshop held with researchers at Cambridge Assessment to encourage the discussion to develop more widely. We reflect upon themes about workplace anxiety identified by the workshop participants, relate the themes to the literature, and consider practical techniques for reducing the impact of anxiety. Our aim is that this study will be helpful in enabling other researchers to become more open in discussing the aspects of their role which cause anxiety. In turn, this will facilitate finding ameliorative solutions to the issues raised, to the mutual benefit of individuals and organisations.

Elliott, G. (2016). Good - better - best? Identifying highest performing jurisdictions. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 22, 37-38.

We have become used to references to high-performing jurisdictions, but there are now many different published rankings of jurisdictions, each of which identifies high-performers. In consequence, the number of jurisdictions which fulfil the description of being high-performing has grown to a sizeable number. Sometimes, for practical research purposes, it is desirable to identify a smaller number of the highest performing jurisdictions at a given point in time. This article explores a strategy for doing so, based upon evaluating the position of a jurisdiction across a number of different rankings.

Elliott, G. (2014). Method in our madness? The advantages and limitations of mapping other jurisdictions' educational policy and practice. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 17, 24-29.

Making comparisons between different nations’ educational systems is challenging and, whilst it is beneficial to study the education systems of other jurisdictions in order to evaluate alternative approaches and to explore innovation, it is important to temper enthusiasm for alternative systems’ successes with a realistic appraisal of the similarities and differences of their systems; their cultures and the dynamics at play in their schools.

Mapping exercises have been used to illuminate contrasts between different international approaches to education and assessment. This paper addresses the advantages and limitations of making comparisons with other jurisdictions, informed by our experiences whilst undertaking a large project during which a total of more than twenty jurisdictions were included in a number of different levels of comparison.

Mehta, S., Suto, I., Elliott, G. and Rushton, N. (2013). Independent research at A level: Students’ and teachers’ experiences. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 15, 9-16. 

Our aims were to explore teachers’ and students’ experiences and perspectives of independent research at A level. The study focused Economics, French and Mathematics. It investigated: (i) the extent to which teachers think research and investigative skills can be developed at A level; (ii) the resources and guidance that students use; and (iii) whether subject-specific differences arise. A questionnaire and follow-on interview methodology was used. 47 Mathematics teachers, 24 Economics teachers and 15 French teachers participated. Additionally, 299 Mathematics students, 228 Economics students and 136 French students took part.

About half of the French and Economics teachers were found to assign investigative/research tasks to their students at least once a fortnight. On the other hand, about half of the Mathematics teachers set such tasks less often and a further 40% never set them at all. The frequency with which the teachers set investigation/research tasks as homework/private study showed the same subject-specific differences as the classroom context. The internet was the most frequently listed source that students across all three subjects consulted while engaging in independent research. The interview data shed further light on general and specific internet usage. Overall, the findings explain some of the variation in preparedness of new undergraduates for independent study and research-related tasks at university.

Rushton, N., Haigh, M., and Elliott, G. (2011). The pitfalls and positives of pop comparability. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, Special Issue 2, 52-56. 

The media debate about standards in public examinations has become an August ritual. The debate tends to be polarised with reports of ‘slipping standards’ at odds with those claiming that educational prowess has increased. Some organisations have taken matters into their own hands, and have carried out their own studies investigating this. Some of these are similar to academic papers; others are closer in nature to a media campaign. In the same way as ‘pop psychology’ is a term used to describe psychological concepts which attain popularity amongst the wider public, so ‘pop comparability’ can be used to describe the evolution of a lay-person’s view of comparability. Studies, articles or programmes which influence this wider view fall into this category and are often accessed by a much larger audience than academic papers. In this article, five of these studies are considered: Series 1 of the televised social experiment “That’ll Teach ‘em”; The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Five-Decade Challenge; the Guardian’s and the Times’ journalists (re)sitting examinations to experience their difficulty; a feature by the BBC Radio 4 programme, ‘Today’ (2009), where students discussed exam papers from 1936; and a book of O level past papers and an associated newspaper article which described students’ experiences of sitting the O level exams.

Elliott, G. (2011).  A guide to comparability terminology and methods. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, Special Issue 2, 9-19.

Comparability is a complex and challenging area for educational researchers, particularly those who have little experience of it. This article seeks to provide a short and accessible introduction to the area. As such it includes discussion of the holism of the topic and how to distinguish between definitions and methods and a glossary of key terms. Core to the article is a list of different methods which have been used when investigating comparability issues in the educational assessment literature. Each method is briefly described, with examples of contexts and definitions which have been applied. 

The article also includes a short summary of some of the key themes in the literature and discussion of how these themes relate to one another. The key aim of this paper is to help researchers come to a better shared understanding of the concepts and issues which form the interwoven web of concepts which characterises comparability. 

Elliott, G (2011). 100 years of controversy over standards: an enduring problem. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, Special Issue 2, 3-8.

This article looks back at the history of comparability in the English assessment system by examining, in detail, the findings of some of the key reports held in Cambridge Assessment’s Group Archive. Of especial interest were the 1911 Consultative committee report upon Examinations in Secondary schools and the 1943 Norwood report Curriculum and Examinations in Secondary Schools. When considered alongside other, more recent literature, the insights from these papers provided a window through which to explore the ways in which theories of comparability have developed and different viewpoints have emerged. 

Key themes which are explored within the article include the changing, and confusing, use of terminology; the role that the purpose of the qualifications plays in determining comparability issues, and the issue of qualifications evolving and subsequently producing new comparability challenges. Some brief, but fascinating, facts and figures about very early comparability studies are also included.

Elliott, G. (2011). Lessons from the past: An overview of the issues raised on the 1911 'Report of the Consultative Committee on Examinations in Secondary Schools'. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 12, 2-7.

This article celebrates the 100th anniversary of the publication 'Examinations in Secondary Schools' by reviewing its contents in the light of issues faced in present day. Ten key issues were identified from the 1911 report, nearly all of which are still subject to current debate. A huge wealth of detail in the 1911 report makes for extremely interesting reading alongside records from recent times. Tracing the outcomes of decisions made into policy and practice, with the benefit of hindsight, can provide an illuminating source of evidence to add to current educational debate.

Elliott, G., Curcin, M., Bramley, T., Ireland, J., Gill, T. and Black, B. (2009). Assessment instruments over time. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 7, 23-25.

As Cambridge Assessment celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008 members of the Evaluation and Psychometrics Team looked back at question papers over the years. Details of the question papers and examples of questions were used to illustrate the development of seven subjects: Mathematics, Physics, Geography, Art, French, Cookery and English Literature. Two clear themes emerged from the work across most subjects - an increasing emphasis on real-world contexts in more recent years and an increasing choice of topic areas and question/component options available to candidates.

Elliott, G. and Johnson, N. (2009). All the right letters – just not necessarily in the right order. Spelling errors in a sample of GCSE English scripts. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 7, 26-31.

For the past ten years, Cambridge Assessment has been running a series of investigations into features of GCSE English candidates’ writing – the Aspects of Writing study (Massey et al., 1996, Massey et al., 2005). The studies have sampled a fragment of writing taken from the narrative writing of 30 boys and 30 girls at every grade at GCSE. Features investigated have included the correct and incorrect use of various forms of punctuation, sophistication of vocabulary, non-standard English, sentence types and the frequency of spelling errors. This paper provides a more detailed analysis of the nature of the spelling errors identified in the sample of work obtained for the Aspects of Writing project from unit 3 (Literary heritage and Imaginative Writing) of the 2004 OCR GCSE examination in English. Are there certain types of spelling error which occur more frequently than others? Do particular words crop up over and over again? How many errors relate to well-known spelling rules, such as “I before E except after C”?

The study identified 345 spelling errors in 11,730 words written, and these were reported in Massey et al. (2005), with a comparison by grade with samples of writing from 1980, 1993 and 1994. It was shown that a considerable decline in spelling in the early 1990s (compared with 1980) had been halted, and at the lower grades, improved.

Since then, we have conducted a detailed analysis of the 345 misspelled words to see if there is evidence of particular types of error. Each misspelling has been categorised, and five broad types of error identified. These are sound-based errors, rules-based errors, errors of commission, omission and transposition, writing errors and multiple errors. This paper will present a detailed examination of the misspellings and the process of developing the categorisation system used. A number of words – woman, were, where, watch(ing), too and the homophones there/their and knew/new are identified as being the most frequently misspelled words. Implications for the findings upon teaching and literacy policy are discussed.

Elliott, G. (2008). Cookery examined - 1937-2007: Evidence from examination questions of the development of a subjects over time. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 6, 24-30.

This paper describes the evolution of a subject - cookery, later known as home economics and food technology - over time, as seen from the perspective of examination questions. The historical background to the examinations is explored, and examples given from examination questions through the years.