Research Assistant

**Project Title: Developing and Piloting an Assessment Tool of Daily Living Skills for Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in Singapore **[DEV 05/19 CM]

**Project Introduction**:Daily living skills refer to the skills typically needed to manage basic life needs, such as grooming/personal hygiene, dressing, toileting/continence, transferring/ambulating, and eating. Daily living skills play an essential role in the quality of life for students with special educational needs (SEN) who face challenges in acquiring these skills. According to a recent study by the principal investigator (Grant #: Skool4Kidz-Teachers P), special education teachers in Singapore found a lack of a unified tool to conduct the assessment of daily living skills as one of the challenges in their teaching practices. This project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE), is aimed to 1) develop an assessment tool of daily living skills covering five major areas (i.e., Self-care, Home living, Health, Leisure, and Community mobility), and 2) piloting the tool among special education teachers in Singapore. More specifically, at Phase 1, a mixed-method research methodology will be utilised to produce the primary deliverable of this project, that is, the assessment tool of daily living skills for students with SEN in school. Subsequently, at Phase 2, approximately 250 special education teachers will be recruited from 19 special education schools and at least 20 mainstream schools to pilot the assessment tool with reliability and validity evidence collected.

**Requirements**:

- Essential- A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., Education, Psychology, Social Sciences, or Data Science and Analytics)
- Possesses experience in data collection
- Able to carry out a literature review
- Able to write reports and academic papers
- Have a strong ability to conduct quantitative data analyses
- At least three years of professional experience preferably in the field of education, research and analysis
- Have excellent organisational, interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills
- Familiarity with the Singapore education system (mainstream/special education/after school)
- Good organisational skills and able to work within tight deadlines
- Proficient in quantitative data analysis
- A strong team player who is also able to work independently and flexibility in a small team
- Good multitasking skills
- Able to maintain calmness and good attitudes under a certain amount of work stress
- Preferred- Experience and interest in project management
- Experience in research work regarding special education
- Proficient in academic writing
- Experience in conducting systematic reviews
- Expereince in conducting qualitative data analysis

**Responsibilities**:

- Coordinate data collection
- Perform data processing and analyses
- Manage research team
- Conduct literature searches
- Assist in writing research reports, publications and presentation materials with minimum supervision
- Manage research data and keep up-to-date research records
- Organise workshops and talks
- Assist in planning and executing tasks to achieve key deliverables
- Other tasks as assigned by the Principal Investigator / Co-PIs

**Application**

**Closing Date**
Closing date for advertisements will be set to 28 calendar days from date of posting.

**Other Information**

Hiring Institution: NIE

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