Research Associate in Education

The Role

Applications are invited for a Research Associate to work on the evaluation of a language intervention programme, the Early Years Conversation Project (EYCP).

EYCP is a professional development (PD) programme developed and delivered by Sheringham Nursery School and East London Research School. The PD programme is designed to support early years/nursery staff with developing understanding and practical strategies to enhance children's communication and language skills.

This research is an evaluation project where we are aiming to work with around 112 early years settings in North and East London in 2023 and 2024. The evaluation design is a randomised waitlist-controlled efficacy trial to investigate the impacts of the EYCP PD programme has on nursery practitioners and on children in the setting.

For more information about the EYCP programme and the efficacy trial, please visit the EYCP trial website at Early Years Conversation Project (2022/23 trial) | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk).

The successful applicant will be expected to manage the delivery of the evaluation research project, under the supervision of the Principal Investigators, Dr Xiaofei Qi and Victoria Menizes. The collaborative project is working with colleagues from across the School of Education and Mathematical Science at Durham University and with the EYCP programme developers based at Sheringham Nursery School and East London Research School. The project will also work closely with the funder, the Education Endowment Foundation.