The Early Investments Initiative and the Social Emotional Teaching and Learning (SETL) Lab are recruiting undergraduates to work on two exciting projects about children's learning and teacher's practices in preschool settings. The Early Investments Initiative broadly aims to build evidence to support sound policy decisions about state early childhood programs. One major project activity is gathering and coding video from preschool classrooms to inform strategies the state is using to rate centers and schools (similar to star ratings of restaurants or movies). The project is funded by the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and led by Professor Rachel Gordon (Sociology Department) with core faculty from the College of Education (Kathleen Sheridan and Catherine Main) and the Psychology Department (Katherine Zinsser).
The SETL Lab is also recruiting undergraduates for the EMOTERS project, a new 4-year project starting this summer. EMOTERS, lead by Professor Katherine Zinsser, aims to develop a measure to capture specific strategies that preschool teachers use to promote children's social and emotional development. Ultimately, the measure will help teachers improve their practices as well as contribute to research about effective strategies. This project includes the video archive and faculty from the Early Investments Initiative.
Opportunities are available for several types of activities and for students with various backgrounds and experiences. The activities range from watching and coding video from preschool classrooms to gathering and organizing information from curricula, instruments, and research publications. Levels range from students who will be sophomores or juniors in AY 16-17 and have limited prior research experience (but are eager to learn!) to rising seniors who have some research or work experience, particularly managing or supervising teams. Many opportunities allow students to sign up for credit (independent study or research) and some are for pay.
To help interested students learn more about the opportunities and projects available, we will be hosting two open houses, on May 4th and May 5th from 9:00 to 11:00 am at the SETL Lab (BSB 2044; directions available here). During the open house, we will have more information and examples from the projects. In addition, current team members will be available to talk about the various projects and answer questions. To assure time with the team, please RSVP for one of the two dates below. Drop ins will be accommodated, as space allows!
Candidates should enjoy spending time with children, have a strong work ethic, and good academic standing (at least a 3.25 GPA). Students should also be enthusiastic about joining an energetic team and be ready to commit to working at least 6 hours per week for at least 2 semesters. Bring a resume (describing prior work, extracurricular, and/or research and relevant course experience) and unofficial transcript to the open house.
RSVP for the Research Open Houses Here
Questions? Contact Professor Rachel Gordon (ragordon@uic.edu).
