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Carol Brown

Departmental Lecturer in Educational Assessment

carol.brown@education.co.uk

About me

Carol Brown is a Departmental Lecturer in Education Assessment at the University of Oxford, where she originally completed her DPhil. She was previously a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Education at Oxford Brookes University where she was Programme Director for the EdD and International Education Programmes and Chair of the University Ethics Board. She is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate fellow of the BPS, and incoming Chair of the BPS Psychology of Education Section. She is a qualified teacher and social worker, having spent 15 years teaching A-level psychology.

Carol’s interests are focused on the psychology of education/ assessment, including achievement motivation, educational inequalities and outcomes, student wellbeing and ethics in educational assessment. She publishes research involving mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative analyses but her principal focus is quantitative analyses, especially involving large datasets. Projects include investigating the role of socio-economic status and gender in A-level achievement; the role of expectations and task values in A-level achievement; examining the links between A-levels and identity; the predictability of examinations; the impact of modular and linear assessments and ethical dilemmas in educational research.

Research

Selected Publications

● Brown, C., Walkington, H., Wood, G., Bradley, S., & Pinot de Moira, A. (2025). The Extended Project Qualification: An Opportunity for All? https://doi.org/10.24384/n8ge-5t58
● Griffin, K., Wilmut, K., Brown, C. & Rihtman, T. (2025). Strategies teachers use to support students’ self-regulation skill development in mainstream primary schools: A scoping review. British Educational Research Journal, 00, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.70081
● Brown, C. (2024) Ethical issues: My reflections on a developmental journey through psychology education, teaching and research (pp 314-343). In McGregor, D., Frodsham, S. and Erduran, S. (Eds) Celebrating Diversity: Collating Personalised and Professional Narratives on Becoming an Educational Researcher. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
● Brown, C. & Wild, M. (2022) Ethical Dilemmas in Educational Research: Considering Challenges and Risks in Practice. McGraw-Hill.
● Brown, C. & Putwain, D. W. (2022) Socio-economic status, gender and achievement: The mediating role of expectancy and subjective task value. Educational Psychology, 42(6), 730 – 748. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2021.1985083.
● Brown, C. (2022). Ethical Issues in Quantitative Research. Sage Research Methods Video Collection. https://methods.sagepub.com/video/srmpromo/e31cAi/ethical-issues-in-qualitative-research. Sage.
● Brown, C. (2022). Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research. Sage Research Methods Video Collection. https://methods.sagepub.com/video/srmpromo/F2n6Fy/ethical-issues-in-quantitative-research, Sage.
● Brown, C. (2022). Ethical Issues in Social Sciences Research. Sage Research Methods Video Collection. https://methods.sagepub.com/video/srmpromo/eiCdv3/ethical-issues-in-social-science-research.Sage.
● Brown, C. (2021). Students’ Perceptions of the Relationship between A-levels, Expectations, Values, Task Demands, Goals and Identities: A Qualitative Pilot Study. Psychology of Education Review, 45(1),52-60.
● Brown, C., Spiro, J., Quinton, S. (2020). The Role of Research Ethics Committees: Friend or Foe in Educational Research? An Exploratory Study. British Educational Research Journal, 46 (4), 747-769.
● Brown, C. (2018). What Motivates A-level Students to Achieve? Exploring the Role of Expectations and Task Values. Psychology of Education Review 42 (1) pp.53-63.
● Brown, C. (2018). The Role of Task Difficulty and Effort in the Expectations and Values of A-level Students. Psychology of Education Review 42 (2). pp.5-14.
● Ingram J, Elliot V, Morin C, Randhawa A, and Brown C. (2018). Playing the system: incentives to game and educational ethics in school examination entry policies in England. Oxford Review of Education 44 (5) pp.545-562.
● Brown C (2014). Who Am I and What Can I Achieve? The Psychologist 27(8).
● Brown C (2008). Developmental Psychology. A Course Companion. Sage.
● Brown C (2006). Cognitive Psychology. A Course Companion. Sage.
● Brown C (2005). Social Psychology: A Course Companion. Sage.