The National Institute of Education invites suitable applications for the position of Research Assistant on a 24-month contract at the Office of Education Research.

Project Title: Mindful High Intensity Interval Training Sessions

Project Introduction:

We are seeking an energetic research assistant interested in physical education, exercise, and mindfulness to join Mindful-HIITS, a research project exploring the impact of a school-based intervention on adolescent regulation and wellbeing.

Exercise and mindfulness training are both valuable interventions that can enhance cognitive function, emotion regulation, and well-being. Their low-cost, modifiable, and scalable nature, offer economical practices that can be adopted by schools to potentially enhance student learning. Some teachers in Singapore already utilize exercise or mindfulness with students in efforts to enhance learning and well-being; however, it is unclear how widely these practices are used, or if they are implemented effectively in local schools. Moreover, while there is ample evidence supporting the broad benefits of exercise and mindfulness separately, there is a dearth of research examining their combined effects on emotion regulation and wellbeing.

This research project aims to develop and test a school-based intervention to improve adolescents' cognitive and affective functioning through a combination of exercise (high intensity interval training [HIIT]) and mindfulness practice that is tailored for secondary school students over several PE lessons. Acute and longer-term effects of the combined mindfulness and HIIT sessions (Mindful HIITS) on emotion regulation, wellbeing, and learning, will be studied using multimodal approaches involving self-report, neuroimaging (EEG), and physiological data collection in school environments. The successful applicant will help drive all aspects of the project and can receive training in mindfulness-based stress reduction practices alongside a wide range of research skills in order to collect, analyze, and interpret multimodal data related to mindfulness, physical exercise, and learning in adolescents.

Essential Requirements:

• Hold a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Physical Education and Sports Science, or related fields.
• Relevant research experience.
• Strong verbal communication and writing skills.
• Expertise in Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Basic knowledge of statistics and SPSS.
• Able to work independently and in teams with minimal supervision.
• Able to work well with children and adolescents.
• Proactive, energetic, and keen to learn.
• Reliable and able to manage concurrent tasks in a timely manner.

Desirable Skills and Experience:

• Experience with sports coaching and/or mindfulness practice.
• Experience with data analysis and publications.
• Experience with electrophysiological data collection and analysis (e.g., EEG)
• Statistical skills and/or knowledge with additional analysis software (e.g., Matlab, Mplus, R, Python).
• Competent with data visualisation, presentation, and/or graphic design.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct literature review.
• Assist in participant and stakeholder management within school contexts.
• Assist in the administration and management of project and intervention.
• Assist with behavioural and neurophysiological data collection, processing, and analysis.
• Assist in writing of reports and journal articles.
• Maintain and document research records.
• Facilitate coordination and training of student assistants.
• Other tasks as assigned by the Principal Investigator.

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