Filio Constantinou

Filio Constantinou

Filio Constantinou

I am an educational researcher and practitioner specialising in educational assessment and educational linguistics.

My research at Cambridge University Press and Assessment has explored a wide range of questions spanning the areas of assessment, curriculum and pedagogy. Recent examples include: how question writers develop examination papers; what effective examination questions look like; how novel examination questions can be; how errors in examination papers occur; what synoptic assessment is and how it can be incorporated into qualifications; how examination papers have changed over time; how students’ examination writing has changed over time; why some subjects are less popular than others; and how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted teaching and learning.

Since joining Cambridge University Press and Assessment, much of my work has involved supporting our examination boards to (re)develop their academic and vocational qualifications by carrying out relevant research and translating its outcomes into practical guidance.

Apart from being a researcher, I am also a practitioner with teaching and assessment experience in both primary and tertiary education. I started my studies at the University of Cyprus where I completed a BA in Education, and then pursued various postgraduate studies at the University of York (MA in Language Education) and the University of Cambridge (PhD in Educational Linguistics; MPhil in Educational Research; PGCert in Educational Assessment and Examinations).

Outside of work, I am involved in a Cambridge University initiative for promoting community languages (CRiCLE Network ). I am also learning Spanish, and I enjoy reading, hiking and travelling.

Publications

2024

‘If you have a question that doesn’t work, then it’s clearly going to upset candidates’: what gives rise to errors in examination papers?

Constantinou, F. (2024). ‘If you have a question that doesn’t work, then it’s clearly going to upset candidates’: what gives rise to errors in examination papers? Oxford Review of Education

‘If you have a question that doesn’t work, then it’s clearly going to upset candidates’: what gives rise to errors in examination papers?
Constantinou, F. (2024). ‘If you have a question that doesn’t work, then it’s clearly going to upset candidates’: what gives rise to errors in examination papers? Oxford Review of Education

2023

Teacher-student interactions in emergency remote teaching contexts: Navigating uncharted waters?
Constantinou, F., & Carroll, M. (2023). Teacher-student interactions in emergency remote teaching contexts: Navigating uncharted waters? Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 43.
Can examination papers always be error-free?

Constantinou, F. (2023, November 14). Can examination papers always be error-free? An exploratory investigation into the conditions that can give rise to errors in assessment instruments. [Paper presentation]. Annual conference of the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe (AEA-Europe), Malta. https://2023.aea-europe.net/

Synchronous hybrid teaching: how easy is it for schools to implement?

Constantinou, F. (2023). Synchronous hybrid teaching: how easy is it for schools to implement? Research Matters: A Cambridge University Press & Assessment publication, 36, 75–87. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.101746

‘Synchronous hybrid teaching’ (SHT), defined as the concurrent delivery of online and in-person teaching, is an instructional mode employed by many schools during the COVID-19 pandemic to minimise learning loss for students who had to self-isolate at home. Since then, there have been calls for SHT to be retained as an instructional strategy post-pandemic to enable students who would otherwise miss school (e.g., students with certain mobility issues, health conditions and/or family circumstances) to still attend classes. To explore the feasibility of this proposal, this qualitative study drew upon the SHT experiences of primary and secondary teachers in different parts of Europe. The findings indicate that SHT is a demanding mode of instruction, one involving four different types of challenges: co-ordination challenges, administrative challenges, interaction challenges, and engagement challenges. More importantly, they demonstrate that SHT can struggle to consistently provide on-site and remote students with comparable learning opportunities and experiences. Through exposing the challenges involved in SHT, the study identifies directions for improving the quality of SHT in the future. It also calls for SHT employed during the pandemic to be referred to as ‘emergency SHT’ rather than merely as ‘SHT’.

Research Matters 36: Autumn 2023
  • Foreword Tim Oates
  • Editorial Tom Bramley
  • The prevalence and relevance of Natural History assessments in the school curriculum, 1858–2000: a study of the Assessment ArchivesGillian Cooke
  • The impact of GCSE maths reform on progression to mathematics post-16Carmen Vidal Rodeiro, Joanna Williamson
  • An example of redeveloping checklists to support assessors who check draft exam papers for errorsSylvia Vitello, Victoria Crisp, Jo Ireland
  • An analysis of the relationship between Secondary Checkpoint and IGCSE resultsTim Gill
  • Synchronous hybrid teaching: how easy is it for schools to implement?Filio Constantinou
  • Research NewsLisa Bowett
The positive impact of the Covid-19 disruption on education

Constantinou, F. (2023, September 12-14). Turning a curse into a blessing: teachers’ reflections on how education has benefited from the COVID-19 disruption. [Paper presentation]. Annual conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), Aston University, UK.

Teachers’ experiences of teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic
Carroll, M. & Constantinou, F. (2023). Teachers’ experiences of teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

2022

Creativity in examination question writing: How novel can examination questions really be?
Constantinou, F. (2022, November 9-12). Creativity in examination question writing: How novel can examination questions really be? Annual conference of the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe (AEA-Europe), Dublin, Ireland.
Learning loss in the Covid-19 pandemic: teachers’ views on the nature and extent of loss

Carroll, M., & Constantinou, F. (2022). Learning loss in the Covid-19 pandemic: teachers’ views on the nature and extent of loss. Research Matters: A Cambridge University Press & Assessment publication, 34, 6–25.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to education around the world. As education systems gradually return to normal, there is a push to understand effects of the disruption. A major impact on students is “learning loss”, in which attainment and progress may have fallen behind expected levels. Various efforts have been made to quantify learning loss, but to better understand it, further work, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, is required.

Here, we sought to record teachers’ views on how far behind (or ahead) their students were compared to a “typical” year, and to gather their opinions about what had been lost (or gained). To do this, we surveyed teachers in schools that work with Cambridge CEM. We received over 400 responses, spread across 38 countries and 198 schools, thus giving a broad sample of experiences.

A majority of respondents felt their students were behind expectations. 1–2 months behind was the most common estimate, but some respondents made much larger estimates of loss, while a sizeable minority thought that their students were on track or even ahead of expectations. Descriptions of the areas of loss indicated that fundamental literacy and numeracy skills had been affected, as had practical skills and general study skills. Responses also described variable impacts, both within and between groups of students. Effects of Covid-related disruption on education are ongoing and may be felt for some time still to come. By exploring the nature and extent of learning loss in students, it is hoped that it will be possible to better understand, and hopefully mitigate, these longer-term impacts.

Research Matters 34: Autumn 2022
  • Foreword Tim Oates
  • Editorial Tom Bramley
  • Learning loss in the Covid-19 pandemic: teachers’ views on the nature and extent of loss Matthew Carroll, Filio Constantinou
  • Which assessment is harder? Some limits of statistical linking Tom Benton, Joanna Williamson
  • Progress in the first year at school Chris Jellis
  • What are "recovery curricula" and what do they include? A literature review Martin Johnson
  • What's in a name? Are surnames derived from trades and occupations associated with lower GCSE scores? Joanna Williamson, Tom Bramley
  • Research News Lisa Bowett
Online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic: an exploration of the nature and quality of teacher-student communication.
Constantinou, F., & Carroll, M. (2022, September 6-8). Online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic: an exploration of the nature and quality of teacher-student communication. Annual conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), Liverpool, UK.

2021

Defining and operationalising synoptic assessment
Constantinou, F. (2021, November 3-5). Defining and operationalising synoptic assessment [Paper presentation]. Annual conference of the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe (AEA-Europe) [online].
How novel can examination questions really be? Exploring the boundaries of creativity in examination question writing
Constantinou, F. (2021). How novel can examination questions really be? Exploring the boundaries of creativity in examination question writing. Research Papers in Education.
How should cognitive science be used in developing teaching practice?
Greatorex, J., Mouthaan, M., Coleman, T., & Constantinou, F. (2021, 8 July)
Is curriculum coherence a fundamental characteristic of high-performing education systems?
Constantinou, F., Greatorex, J., Mouthaan, M., & Coleman, V. (2021, 1 June)

2020

What is synoptic assessment? Defining and operationalising an as yet non-mainstream assessment concept.
Constantinou, F. (2020). What is synoptic assessment? Defining and operationalising an as yet non-mainstream assessment concept. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 27(6), 670-686.
The Learning Passport: Curriculum Framework (Maths, Science, Literacy).
Cambridge Assessment. (2020). The Learning Passport: Curriculum Framework (Maths, Science, Literacy). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Assessment.
Examination questions as a form of communication between the examiner and the examinee: a sociolinguistic perspective on assessment practice
Constantinou, F. (2020). Examination questions as a form of communication between the examiner and the examinee: a sociolinguistic perspective on assessment practice. Cambridge Journal of Education, 50(6), 711-728
Research Matters 29: Spring 2020
  • Foreword Tim Oates, CBE
  • Editorial Tom Bramley
  • Accessibility in GCSE Science exams – Students' perspectives Victoria Crisp and Sylwia Macinska
  • Using corpus linguistic tools to identify instances of low linguistic accessibility in tests David Beauchamp, Filio Constantinou
  • A framework for describing comparability between alternative assessments Stuart Shaw, Victoria Crisp, Sarah Hughes
  • Comparing small-sample equating with Angoff judgement for linking cut-scores on two tests Tom Bramley
  • How useful is comparative judgement of item difficulty for standard maintaining? Tom Benton
  • Research News Anouk Peigne
Using corpus linguistics tools to identify instances of low linguistic accessibility in tests

Beauchamp, D. and Constantinou, F. (2020). Using corpus linguistics tools to identify instances of low linguistic accessibility in tests. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication, 29, 10-16.

Assessment is a useful process as it provides various stakeholders (e.g., teachers, parents, government, employers) with information about students' competence in a particular subject area. However, for the information generated by assessment to be useful, it needs to support valid inferences. One factor that can undermine the validity of inferences from assessment outcomes is the language of the assessment material. For example, the use of excessively complex grammar and difficult vocabulary in the formulation of test questions may prevent students from displaying their true knowledge and skills (e.g., students who are not native speakers of the target language). In an attempt to support teachers and test developers in designing linguistically accessible assessment material, this study explored practical ways of investigating the linguistic complexity of test questions both at the level of vocabulary (lexical complexity) and grammar (syntactic complexity). The study compiled three corpora of examination questions and undertook automated lexical and syntactic analyses of these questions using software packages that are typically employed in the field of corpus linguistics.

Non-standard English in UK students' writing over time.
Constantinou, F., & Chambers, L. (2020). Non-standard English in UK students' writing over time. Language and Education, 34(1), 22-35.

2019

To what extent is the language of this test question readable? Tools for investigating the linguistic accessibility of assessment material
Beauchamp. D., and Constantinou, F. (2019). To what extent is the language of this test question readable? Tools for investigating the linguistic accessibility of assessment material. Presented at the 20th annual AEA-Europe conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 13-16 November 2019.
Tests as texts: investigating test questions from a sociolinguistic perspective
Constantinou, F. (2019). Tests as texts: investigating test questions from a sociolinguistic perspective. Presented at the 20th Annual AEA-Europe conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 13-16 November 2019.
Why are some subjects less popular than others? Extending the debate.
Constantinou, F. (2019). Why are some subjects less popular than others? Extending the debate. Presented at the biennal conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Aachen, Germany, August 2019.
To what extent is the language of this test question readable? Tools for investigating the linguistic accessibility of assessment material.
Beauchamp., D. and Constantinou, F. (2019). To what extent is the language of this test question readable? Tools for investigating the linguistic accessibility of assessment material. Presented at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, 10-12 September 2019.
The construct of language competence over time: using high-stakes tests to gain insight into the history of L1 education in England
Constantinou, F. (2019). The construct of language competence over time: using high-stakes tests to gain insight into the history of L1 education in England. Language and Education, 33(6), 491-505.
A diachronic perspective on formality in students' writing: empirical findings from the UK
Constantinou, F., Chambers, L., Zanini, N. and Klir, N. (2019). A diachronic perspective on formality in students' writing: empirical findings from the UK. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 33(1), 66-83.
A question of quality: Conceptualisations of quality in the context of educational test questions

Crisp, V., Johnson, M. and Constantinou, F. (2019) A question of quality: Conceptualisations of quality in the context of educational test questions. Research in Education, 105 (1), 18-41.

2018

Constructs over time: the construct of language competence as captured in tests in England over the last 150 years
Constantinou, F. (2018). Constructs over time: the construct of language competence as captured in tests in England over the last 150 years. Presented at the 19th annual AEA-Europe conference, Arnhem/Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 7-10 November 2018.
'That path won't lead nowhere': non-standard English in UK students' writing over time
Constantinou, F. and Chambers, L. (2018). 'That path won't lead nowhere': non-standard English in UK students' writing over time. Presented at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), Newcastle, UK, September 2018.
Strong and weak ‘brands’ in the school curriculum: towards a framework for levelling the curriculum hierarchy
Constantinou, F. (2018). Strong and weak ‘brands’ in the school curriculum: towards a framework for levelling the curriculum hierarchy. Research Papers in Education, 34(5), 553-568.

2017

Alternative uses of examination data: the case of English Language writing
Chambers, L., Constantinou, F., Zanini, N. and Klir, N. (2017). Presented at the 18th annual AEA Europe conference, Prague, 9-11 November 2017.
Formality in students’ writing over time: empirical findings from the UK
Constantinou, F., Chambers, L., Zanini, N. and Klir, N. (2017). Presented at the annual European Conference of Educational Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, 22-25 August 2017
Multiple voices in tests: towards a macro theory of test writing
Constantinou, F., Crisp, V. and Johnson, M. (2017).  Multiple voices in tests: towards a macro theory of test writing.  Cambridge Journal of Education, 48(8), 411-426.
How do question writers compose external examination questions? Question writing as a socio-cognitive process
Johnson, M., Constantinou, F. and Crisp, V. (2017). How do question writers compose external examination questions? Question writing as a socio-cognitive process. British Educational Research Journal (BERJ). 43(4), 700-719.

2016

Research Matters Special Issue 4: Aspects of Writing 1980-2014
  • Variations in aspects of writing in 16+ English examinations between 1980 and 2014 Gill Elliott, Sylvia Green, Filio Constantinou, Sylvia Vitello, Lucy Chambers, Nicky Rushton, Jo Ireland, Jessica Bowyer, David Beauchamp
How do question writers compose examination questions? Question writing as a socio-cognitive process
Johnson, M., Constantinou, F. and Crisp, V. (2016). Paper presented at the AEA-Europe annual conference, Limassol, Cyprus, 3-5 November 2016
'Question quality': The concept of quality in the context of exam questions
Crisp, V., Johnson, M. and Constantinou, F. (2016). Paper presented at the AEA-Europe annual conference, Limassol, Cyprus,3-5 November 2016
Writing questions for examination papers: a creative process?
Constantinou, F., Crisp, V. and Johnson, M. (2016). Paper presented at the 8th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI) SIG 1 - Assessment and Evaluation, Munich, Germany, 24-26 August 2016

2015

Piloting a method for comparing examination question paper demands
Chambers, L., Greatorex, J., Constantinou, F. and Ireland, J. (2015). Paper presented at the AEA-Europe annual conference, Glasgow, Scotland, 4-7 November 2015.
Piloting a method for comparing examination question paper demands
Greatorex, J., Chambers, L., Constantinou, F. and Ireland, J. (2015).  Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference, Belfast, UK, 14-17 September 2015.

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