I am a psychometrician and a cross-cultural psychologist of assessment. Previously, I was a secondary school teacher in Auckland for 10 years, a tutor of ESOL for 3 years, and a standardised test developer for 9 years. I am a Scots-born Canadian, but lived in Europe from age 10 to 21. I worked in Hong Kong for 3 years as a university academic.

I research the assessment of student achievement and learning outcomes. I focus on the design, format, administration, marking, and feedback of assessment processes. These matter to the attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviours that shape how teachers and students respond to assessment practices. The value of assessment practices depend on their validity, reliability and bias, purposes, and cultural/jurisdictional contexts. Purposes and qualities matter to student and teacher responses in the classroom and society in general. Teacher and student responses to assessment are influenced by related practices and forces (e.g., curriculum, knowledge, learning, teaching, etc.). How and what we do with assessment reflects the cultural and social priorities generated within a society.
AWARDS

2020-2025. Top 2% -cited author.  Stanford-Elsevier Scientist Ranking of Standardized Citation Indicators (v2-v8).

2019. Highly Commended, Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence: Sorrell, D., & Brown, G. T. L. (2018). A comparative study of two interventions to support reading comprehension in primary aged students. International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, 20(1), 67-87. doi10.1108/IJCED-08-2017-0018 

2015. Distinguished Paper Award, Classroom Assessment SIG, American Educational Research Association for paper presented at the 2014 meeting: Harris, Brown, & Harnett, Classifying Feedback Using Hattie & Timperley’s Feedback Typology: Examining the Content of New Zealand Students’ Written Peer- and Self-Assessment Comments.

2014. Teaching Excellence Award for Postgraduate Research Supervision, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland.

2008. Early Career Research Excellence Award, University Research Committee, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

2004. Highly Commended, BearingPoint Innovation Award for Public Service and Innovation in Technology, Senior Project Manager of Project asTTle Team, The University of Auckland.

2003. Computerworld Excellence Award for Use of IT in Education, Senior Project Manager of Project asTTle Team, The University of Auckland.

CURRENT MEMBERSHIPS
• International Test Commission (ITC),
• European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI)
• Fellow & Member, Association for Psychological Science (APS)