The National Institute of Education invites suitable applications for the position of Research Assistant on an 18-month contract at the Singapore Centre for Character and Citizenship Education.

Project Title: Investigating Socio-ecological enablers of student flourisHIng through chaRacter strEngths (iSPHIRE)

Project Introduction: As emerging technologies reshape social and educational landscapes, adolescents face new challenges in balancing academic knowledge, technical competencies, and character development. These combined competencies are critical in empowering youth to navigate their social worlds, supporting both meaningful educational pursuits and their growth as ethical, responsible citizens. This project investigates how students are inspired and motivated to cultivate purposeful inner strengths within their unique socio-ecological contexts.

We are looking for a motivated researcher to join our team in exploring adolescent character development and identifying pathways to support student flourishing. Successful applicants will have unique opportunities to learn about contemporary frameworks and strengthen their skills in empirical research design and analysis.

Requirements:

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Sociology, Social Science, or a related field.
• Candidates with a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline may be considered at the Associate level.
• Proficiency in at least one statistical software package (e.g., SPSS, R).
• Experience with survey data collection and data management workflows.
• Competency in data cleaning, variable coding and conducting foundational statistical analyses such as ANOVA and descriptive statistics.
• Strong interpersonal communication, writing and language skills, with the ability to liaise and engage with educators, students and external vendors.
• Proactive and capable of working independently while managing multiple tasks with minimal supervision
• Proficiency in Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, OneDrive, etc.).

Preferred

• Experience with intermediate statistical analyses (e.g., factor analysis, multiple regression).
• Experience with Qualtrics for survey design and administration.
• Experience with qualitative interviewing and data coding.
• Familiar with the Singapore education system.

Responsibilities:

• Communicate and coordinate data collection by liaising with teachers and students regarding scheduling, logistics, voucher distribution and queries.
• Set up, test, and administer online surveys via Qualtrics.
• Support survey data management including data protection, cleaning, and coding.
• Support project management including recording, documentation and tracking research progress.
• Conduct statistical analyses, with opportunities to learn and develop analysis skills.
• Conduct literature reviews proactively or as assigned by the Principal Investigator / Co-Principal Investigators.
• Assist in drafting reports, progress updates, presentation slides and academic papers for publication.
• Other tasks as assigned by the Principal Investigator / Co- Principal Investigators.

Application

Applicants (external and internal) will apply via Workday. We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Closing Date

Closing date for advertisements will be set to 14 calendar days from date of posting.

Hiring Institution: NIE