Research Associate - Asian Languages & Cultures Department (Early Book Reading Project)

About the role

The National Institute of Education (NIE) is hiring a Research Associate on a 12-month contract within its Asian Languages & Cultures Department. The project, titled "Promoting Early Book Reading at Home: An Intervention with Enhanced eBooks", uses a mixed-method approach with 2-6-year-old English-Mandarin bilinguals in Singapore to study parental attitudes toward mother tongue reading and to evaluate enhanced eBooks (interactive, research-approved books) as a way to improve home reading.

Key responsibilities

• Carry out systematic literature searches and reviews
• Administer child assessments, surveys and interviews, and help run experiments
• Work with families, teachers and school administrators to coordinate data collection
• Organise research data, keep records and document project progress
• Help process data and prepare it for analysis
• Support administrative work related to the project
• Help prepare conference presentations, journal articles, book chapters, research reports and digital media posts
• Carry out other duties assigned by the Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigators

Required profile

• Master's degree in Education, Applied Linguistics, Cognitive Science or a related field
• Proficiency in written and spoken English
• Strong interpersonal skills, self-motivated and able to work independently to meet deadlines
• Proactive, reliable and eager to learn
• Able to manage multiple tasks effectively

Preferred profile

• Proficiency in written and spoken Mandarin Chinese
• Experience in data collection and research tasks such as data entry and literature reviews
• At least one first-author publication
• Experience conducting literature reviews and learning meta-analysis
• Basic data analysis experience (e.g. correlations) and willingness to learn advanced techniques
• Experience in early childhood settings with children and preschool teachers
• Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education - Teaching (DECCE-T) or Diploma (Conversion) in Kindergarten Education - Teaching (NVKET)

Applications (internal and external) are made through Workday; only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. The closing date is 14 calendar days after the posting.