Dr Susan Sheehan

Dr Susan Sheehan

Dr Susan Sheehan is Deputy REF Co-ordinator for UoA23 (Education) and a Senior Lecturer in TESOL.  She researches English language assessment, classroom-based assessment practices and Language Assessment Literacy (LAL). Her research informs her teaching practice on both the MA and BA TESOL courses.

Recent research projects

Here are some examples of Susan’s research projects.  

IELTS Joint Funded Research Program (Round 28) - An investigation of the language assessment interests and needs of professional registration bodies in the UK: An unconsidered perspective? (2023-2024) (named researcher with John Pill, University of Lancaster)

British Council Viet Nam - Assessment and testing (including online provision) to ensure fairness and inclusivity. (2021-2023) (Principal Investigator)

British Council English Language Teaching Research Award - Classroom assessment: the development of teachers’ cognitions”. (2017-2018) (Principal Investigator)

British Council English Language Teaching Research Award - Assessment: Attitudes, practices and needs (2015-2016) (Principal Investigator)

British Council Assessment Research Grant - Identifying key criteria of written and spoken English at C1 (2014-2015) (named co-researcher)

Conferences and symposia organised

In addition to her own research Susan has promoted language assessment and LAL research by organising symposia and conferences. Two examples are listed below.

LAL SIG Symposium: Towards a model of language assessment literacy, 42nd Language Testing Research Colloquium: Assessment in Multilingual contexts: models, practices, policies & challenges, 16 June 2021

Language Testing Forum: Assessing languages in the UK, University of Huddersfield 24-26 November 2017

Membership of editorial boards: international peer-reviewed journals

Susan is an active member of the language assessment research community.  Below are examples of editorial and reviewer work.  

Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development – 2021 to present

Referee for Journals

Language Assessment Quarterly, Journal of Education for Teaching, Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, SAGE Open, Studies in the Education of Adults, Ethnography and Education

You can read more about Susan’s research on Pure.