PTE Technical Advisory Group
Our Technical Advisory Group comprises experts from both language testing and psychometrics. They provide feedback, advice, and critical assessment of the development of PTE Academic at every stage. Meet the group members.
Dr. Yan Jin
Dr. Jin is a professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. She joined the Technical Advisory Group in April 2018.
She has been involved in research and practice of language testing and assessment since the late 1980s and has rich experience in the operation of language assessment programs.
Her research interest focuses on the development and validation of large-scale and high-stakes language assessments. She is currently chair of the National College English Testing Committee and Co-President of the Asian Association for Language Assessment.
Dr. Mary Richardson
Mary is Professor of Educational Assessment at IOE, UCL Faculty of Education and Society. She has over 20 years’ teaching experience including education practice and policy, education history and testing and assessment practice. Her doctoral candidates focus on a wide range of topics related to assessment including: social media representation of testing, ethics and anxiety in testing, assessment of simulated learning in medicine, and comparative judgement.
She has a background in educational assessment development and awarding through work as a Senior Research Officer in the dept for Research and Statistics at AQA, a national examination board in England. Her current research is anchored in assessment with specialist expertise in student experiences and how assessment shapes learner identity, public understanding of testing, the ethics of assessment and currently, what generative AI might mean to all our assessment futures.
She sits on the Research Board for Qualifications Wales, for AQA Exam Board's Research Department and is the co-convenor of the British Educational Research Association's Special Interest Group (SIG) for Curriculum and Assessment. She works on a range of international and national research projects and has conducted work in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Czech Republic and in Canada. She is the co-founder of IOE’s Educational Assessment research group and runs monthly seminars and other public events to promote understanding of assessment in education.
Dr. Peter Foltz
Dr. Peter Foltz is a Research Professor at the University of Colorado’s Institute of Cognitive Science and Executive Director of the NSF Institute for Student-AI Teaming. His work focuses on AI-based approaches for educational and clinical assessments, large-scale data analytics, cognitive skills in reading and writing, team collaboration, and 21st Century skills learning.
Much of his work has emphasized techniques for automatically analyzing the meaning of language through writing and speaking. The patented methods he has pioneered are used by millions of people annually to improve achievement, expand student access, and make learning materials more affordable.
He was formerly Founder and Chief Scientist at Knowledge Analysis Technologies and then worked as Vice President for Research at Pearson. He has also served as the content lead for the framework development of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessments for literacy and 21st century skills."
He has served as guest editor for a number of journals including the International Journal of AI in Education and Discourse Processes as well as co-editor of the recent Handbook of Automated Scoring: Theory into Practice.
Dr. Joshua McGrane
Dr. Joshua McGrane is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Assessment & Evaluation Research Centre in the University of Melbourne, and a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.
He has extensive experience in academic and government contexts in educational assessment and measurement, including being an expert advisor for several national and international government and non-profit organisations. His research and teaching interests span the philosophical, empirical, and statistical aspects of educational measurement.
He is presently working on several projects including developing and validating assessments for understudied languages, the development of a meta-framework for measurement in the social sciences, and combining psychometric and AI modelling to enhance educational assessment.
He has previously worked on a range of language assessment focused projects, including as lead researcher for England’s National Research Centre for the IEA’s PIRLS study of Primary level literacy, and the development and validation of the LanguageScreen assessment of oral language skills.
Dr. Rose Clesham
Rose is the Director of Academic Standards and Measurement in Global Assessment at Pearson. She holds a Master’s in Formative and Summative Assessment from Cambridge University and a Doctorate in Educational Assessment.
She has extensive experience in educational curriculum, assessment and policy. Her professional career started in teaching and teacher education. Since 2000, she has held key roles in Governmental, Regulatory and International Awarding bodies, designing, developing and evaluating academic and vocationally focused tests and qualifications, from paper to computer-based modes, using human, automated and AI scoring.
Issues surrounding the content, design, standards, reliability and validity of assessments are central to her work, to meet the needs of evolving international educational landscapes and requirements.
She has worked extensively on OECD PISA assessments, including co-writing assessment frameworks. Rose writes and lectures on international educational standards. Her research interests include the design and development of e-assessment and Artificial Intelligence systems, and on-going international educational strategies and policy.
She holds a master’s degree in Formative and Summative Assessment from Cambridge University and a Doctorate in Educational Assessment. She is a Fellow of the Association for Educational Assessment-Europe (AEA-E) and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of London (UCL).
Dr. Sathena Chan
Sathena Chan is an Associate Professor in Language Assessment at CRELLA and the Director of Institute of Humanities, Education and Arts Research (IHEAR) at University of Bedfordshire.
She specialises in high-stakes English language assessment. She works with leading assessment providers in the UK and worldwide to develop and/or validate language assessment which are taken by millions of candidates each year. Her research explores the relationship between task design, L2 language processing and performance using innovative mixed-methods research including eye-tracking, keystroke logging and fMRI. She has led over 40 externally funded projects as PI. The outcomes of her research provide practical solutions for better fit-for-purpose language assessment in the digital age. In addition, she has conducted policy research for the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Midwifery and Nursing Council (MNC) regarding their language proficiency requirement for registration. Her books include 'Defining Integrated Reading-into-Writing Constructs: Evidence at the B2-C1 Interface' (read an excerpt [PDF]) and 'Research and practice in assessing academic English’ (both Cambridge University Press). She has written book chapters on topics such as ‘differences in L2 reading and listening (Routledge) and ‘construct definition at the heart of language assessment (Cambridge University Press). She has also published widely in peer-reviewed journals. She regularly provides professional training on various aspects of language assessment and mixed-methods research.