Research Assistant in Psychology and Education

We are seeking a graduate researcher to join an exciting ongoing project at the interface between psychology, education and intervention. We have developed a preschool-based intervention geared to improving preschoolers’ executive and numeracy skills. The intervention aims to improve the foundations of early numeracy, by working in collaboration with early years education practitioners and leveraging informal educational opportunities in the classroom. The intervention was developed by cognitive scientists, educational experts and practitioners. This particular position will involve joining an extended team connecting the University of Sheffield with the University of Oxford and our national / international collaborators, to deliver the intervention as part of a large scale randomised controlled trial. This RCT will evaluate the effectiveness of the programme in improving young children’s mathematics outcomes, with a particular focus on economically disadvantaged children.

The post is full time, fixed term available from 1 September 2023 to 30 June 2025.

A keen interest in developmental psychology, early education and related data is essential. The successful candidate will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to manage their own research and administrative activities, as well as working as part of a team. The post-holder will be involved in all aspects of the research project, with a strong focus on communicating with nurseries around the UK, intervention delivery in the nurseries that have signed up, presenting to teachers, qualitative / quantitative data collection and knowledge exchange activities. As this post will involve travel to nurseries around the UK (e.g., London, East Midlands and the East of England), this would be facilitated by ideally having access to own reliable transport.

All applications must be received by midday UK time on Thursday 15th June. It is foreseen that interviews will be held over the week commencing Monday 3rd July. The post-holder will be able to start in post on 1st September 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter.

You will be required to upload a covering letter explaining how you meet the job requirements, as well as a CV and details of two referees as part of your online application.

For queries regarding the post or job description, feel free to contact Prof Gaia Scerif, gaia.scerif@psy.ox.ac.uk and Dr Emma Blakey emma.blakey@sheffield.ac.uk.

To apply for this role and for further details, including the job description and selection criteria, please see the links below.