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Department of Education

Yasmine El Masri

Honorary Research Fellow

College Affiliation: Brasenose College

Dr Yasmine El Masri is Associate Director for Research at England’s Office for The Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Education.

Yasmine held various positions as a Research Fellow at Ofqual, OUCEA and Brasenose College. She has also an experience in research management at one of England’s examination boards (AQA) and acted as an Assessment Expert Advisor for the qualifications’ regulator in Wales, Qualification Wales.

Yasmine completed her DPhil in Education at OUCEA in 2015. Her doctoral thesis examined the impact of language on the difficulty of PISA science tests across UK, France and Jordan using different psychometric and statistical techniques including Rasch modelling and differential item functioning (DIF). In 2014, Yasmine received Kathleen Tattersall New Researcher Award from the Association for Education Assessment- Europe (AEA-Europe).

Before coming to Oxford, Yasmine was a science teacher in secondary schools in Beirut and Abu Dhabi. In addition to her DPhil degree from Oxford, Yasmine holds a Master of Arts in Science Education, a Teaching Diploma for teaching science in secondary schools and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the American University of Beirut (AUB).

Yasmine led various externally funded projects, including a one-year ESRC GCRF Fellowship in 2017, during which she collaborated with a local NGO in Lebanon producing open-source interactive science tasks in multiple languages for underprivileged students in the country, including Syrian refugees. She also led a study within Project Calibrate, a three-year project funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Gatsby Foundation aiming to enhance summative assessments of practical science in England. Moreover, she was a co-investigator on various projects funded by external organizations (e.g., Critical Thinking in the International Baccalaureate’s Diploma Programme and the impact of translation in the Diploma Programme science assessments).

Research Interests

Language in assessment, science assessments, international large-scale assessments, critical thinking, comparability of assessments across cultures, digitisation of assessments, onscreen (computer-based) assessments

 

Funded Research Projects:

  • The Effect of the Diploma Programme on Critical Thinking Development: An International Multisite Evaluation

    • International Baccalaureate Organisation. Award: $100,000. Co-Investigator & Project Manager

  • Calibrate Project

    • Researcher, Leader of Study 2 and member of the Project Management Board. Funder: Wellcome Trust; Award: £270,773

  • Using Technology in Science Tasks

    • Reducing Language Barriers for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, PI. Funder: ESRC GCRF; Award: £100,000

  • Aga Khan University Language Policy Thinking Group PI. Funder

    • Oct 2016 – Jun 2017

    Aga Khan University; Award: £20,000

  • Systematic review on judging demands and predicting task difficulty, PI. Funder

    • Apr - October 2016

    Oxford University Department of Education; Award: £3,366

  • Task Difficulty Models, Co-investigator with Professor Jo-Anne Baird. Funder

    • Jan - Dec 2015

    Pearson Inc.; Award: £46,667

  • Is Science lost in translation? Language effects in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Science Assessments

    • International Baccalaureate Organisation. Award: $55,000 USD. Co-investigator.

Doctoral Applications

Yasmine welcomes doctoral applications from students interested in the following research areas:

  • item difficulty and demands
  • language in educational assessment
  • science assessments
  • differential item functioning (DIF)
  • Rasch modelling
  • international large-scale assessments

Publications:

  • Book chapters

  • Journal articles

    • El Masri, Y., Erduran, S., & Ioannidou, O. (2021). Designing practical science assessments in England: students’ engagement and perceptions. Research in Science and Technological Education, 41(1), 190-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/02635143.2021.1872519
      https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:47b421f3-b489-43bf-b69c-9405f5b451fe

    • Erduran, S., El Masri, Y., Cullinane, A., & Ng, Y. (2020). Assessment of practical science in high stakes examinations: a qualitative analysis of high performing English-speaking countries. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2020.1769876
      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2020.1769876

    • Erduran, S., El Masri, Y., Cullinane, A., & Lim-Ng, D. (2020). Assessment of practical science in high stakes examinations: a qualitative analysis of high performing English-speaking countries. International Journal of Science Education, 42(9), 1544-1567. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2020.1769876
      https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d48dc9b3-d311-4d40-a5c3-0a1453aaa7ed

    • El Masri, Y., & Andrich, D. (2020). The trade-off between model fit, invariance, and validity: the case of PISA science assessments. Applied Measurement in Education, 33(2), 164-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/08957347.2020.1732384
      https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5dfcd29d-f868-423b-ba03-57e36e59a9fd

    • Hopfenbeck, T., Lenkeit, J., El Masri, Y., Cantrell, K., Ryan, J., & Baird, J.-A. (2017). Lessons learned from PISA: a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles on the Programme for International Student Assessment. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2016.1258726
      https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:76a5957d-0fc1-401a-b37d-1beb95418d43

    • El Masri, Y., Baird, J.-A., & Graesser, A. (2016). Language effects in international testing: the case of PISA 2006 science items. Assessment in Education, 23(4), 427-455. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2016.1218323
      https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fa8b3fcc-ac71-4daf-aa06-1ec407d920eb

    • El Masri, Y., Ferrara, S., Foltz, P., & Baird, J.-A. (2016). Predicting item difficulty of science National Curriculum tests: The case of Key Stage 2 assessments. Curriculum Journal, 28(1), 59-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2016.1232201
      https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:79515600-2427-4e38-b4cf-603987af1726

    • El Masri, Y., & Vlaardingerbroek, B. (2010). Science textbook readability in Lebanon: A comparison between anglophone and francophone learning milieux. Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, 15(1), 109-124.

    • Vlaardingerbroek, B., & El Masri, Y. (2008). The status of evolutionary theory in undergraduate biology programmes at Lebanese universities: A comparative study. International Journal of Educational Reform, 15, 150-163.

  • Reports

    • BAIRD, J.-A., Caro, D., ELLIOTT, V., EL MASRI, Y., INGRAM, J., RANDHAWA, A., Isaacs, T., Stobart, G., Meadows, M., Morin, C., Pinot de Moira, A., & Taylor, R. (2019). Examination reform: Impact of linear and modular examinations at GCSE.

    • Hopfenbeck, T., Tolo, A., Florenz, T., & El Masri, Y. (2013). Balancing trust and accountability? The Assessment for Learning Programme in Norway. In Report for OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0d294750-24c1-47a5-85cc-954d3a9b08d5
      https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0d294750-24c1-47a5-85cc-954d3a9b08d5

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