The National Institute of Education invites suitable applications for the Part-time Student Assistants at the Office of Education Research.
- Project Title: Collaborative Teaching Between Remote Higher Education Institutions: A Blended Synchronous Learning Approach to Educational Neuroscience
Project Information: Research on best practices to enhance blended learning with synchronous components have been conducted in recent years. These research efforts, however, have been limited and focused on common cultural contexts. This project aims to monitor students’ engagement while attending a blended cross-cultural course with synchronous components. A secondary aim of this study includes to assess different technology and pedagogical-mediated approaches aimed at improving students’ learning outcomes. The study results will inform the academic community on best practices to enhance the teaching quality and the student learning experience when implementing cross-cultural blended curses with synchronous components.
- Academic qualification: advanced undergraduate degree student or graduate student
- Work experience: some work experience in research with literature reviews, self- report questionnaires administration, data collection, organization, coding, and analysis, and basic programming skills in Matlab/R (or similar). Experience with video recordings coding and analysis is also preferable
- Desirable interests, skills, and attributes: interest in blended learning and student engagement; have good communication skills and organizational skills; have good interpersonal skills; be a good team-player; be proactive, and able to work independently
- ResponsibilitiesTo support with the implementation schedule of this proposal by conducting literature reviews, creating study materials (such as design of coding systems for self-report measures and video recordings, and interview protocols), conducting data analysis, and writing reports and other dissemination materials.
- Target contract start and end date – mid January – December 2023
- Time Type – approximately 720 hours total, flexible schedule Location – NIE5-03-57E
2. Project Title: Testing the Efficacy of School Activities Targeting Student Learning & Wellbeing
Project Information: The primary goal of this pilot study is to test whether different school-based activities, such as short sessions of mindful breathing and stretching exercises (called ‘brain breaks’), are effective or not in optimizing student learning and wellbeing using a combination of non-invasive neurophysiological and cognitive measures. If effective, the proposed pilot study will also seek to reveal the mechanism by which these activities influence students’ learning and wellbeing.
- Academic qualification: advanced undergraduate degree student or graduate student
- Work experience: some work experience in research with literature reviews; study protocols; data collection, coding, and analysis; basic programming skills in Matlab or R (or similar), and academic writing
- Desirable interests, skills, and attributes: interest in effective learning in school settings; have good communication skills and organizational skills; have good interpersonal skills; be a good team-player; be proactive, and able to work independently and with children
- Responsibilities To support with the implementation schedule of this project by writing study protocols, collecting data, creating data entry, coding, processing, analysis, and dissemination, as well as other immediate actions the team anticipates may need to elaborate on to better understand the preliminary results (literature reviews, collection of additional data, further adjustments in protocols, for example).
- Target contract start and end date – mid January – August 2023
- Time Type – 700 hours total, flexible schedule Location – NIE5-03-57E
3. Project Title: Co-production of neuroscience of learning resources for asynchronous teaching
Project Information: The primary goal of this project is to co-produce learning resources to be used asynchronously as part of pre-existing blended learning courses at Imperial College and Nanyang Technological University. This co-production between these Higher Education institutions includes all aspects of the materials’ production process, spanning inception, design, storyboarding, evaluation, and pilot implementation. Outcomes will address current challenges in implementing effective blended learning formats and fostering development of students’ self-efficacy and self- regulation of their individual learning process.
- Academic qualification: advanced undergraduate degree student or graduate student
- Work experience: some work experience in research with literature reviews; study protocols; data collection, organization, coding, and analysis; and academic writing
- Desirable interests, skills, and attributes: interest in effective learning in Higher Education settings; have good communication skills and organizational skills; have good interpersonal skills; be a good team-player; be proactive, and able to work independently and with international partners
- Responsibilities To manage project-related administrative work. To conduct literature reviews, screening, and coding on effective teaching resources for asynchronous learning on selected topics (memory and attention, for example). To support with data collection, organization, and analysis. To contribute to knowledge translation and dissemination of findings. To perform other tasks as required by the Principal Investigators
- Target contract start and end date – February – April 2023
- Time Type – 100 hours total, flexible schedule
- Location – NIE5-03-57E
Applicants should send their CVs and a letter of interest in the position to Dr. Astrid Schmied (astrid.schmied -at- nie.edu.sg). Selected applicants will be invited to a job interview.