PhD Studentship: ISEY - Institute for the Science of Early Years and Youth at UEL

Fully funded PhD place at ISEY - Institute for the Science of Early Years and Youth at UEL

A funded PhD position is available to work on a project exploring the impact of indoor and outdoor learning environments on children’s language and communication, and how AI can be used to analyse speech and language in this type of research. The project will build on ISEY’s previous research which found that overall noise levels in a class of 4–5-year-olds were lower when matched activities were conducted outside (even on urban school grounds) compared to inside their usual classroom. The study found that the outdoor environment also supported the attention and prosocial behaviour of children who struggled indoors. 

This new project will use child wearables and explore how different AI tools and techniques can be combined to measure and test how indoor and outdoor environments affect the frequency, duration and complexity of children’s spontaneous speech and intra-group communication. The PhD will be based at ISEY, at the Stratford Campus of UEL. This lab is led by Sam Wass, and the PhD will be supervised by Gemma Goldenberg and Muhammad Ehatisham Ul Haq. The successful candidate would be working within a wider team of 20 researchers at ISEY but would be the only researcher working on this specific project. This means there is some scope for the PhD candidate to contribute to shaping the project focus and design.

Knowledge exchange and dissemination will be a key part of this PhD, and the successful candidate will be expected to share project findings and associated research with teachers and early years practitioners, as part of the training and development services that ISEY offers. Therefore, this role is especially suitable for someone passionate about bridging the gap between research and practice and translating research for a non-scientific audience. This may involve writing articles for educator-facing publications, attending early years events, and running online and face to face training, support will be given in these areas. 

Experience of working with children and an interest in educational practices, speech and language development, and outdoor learning is highly desirable. Familiarity with programming and data analysis tools is also preferable as the PhD will involve some advanced quantitative data analysis, although support will be given in this area. The PhD will start in September 2025 or January 2026. Funding covers tuition fees (approx. £5-8k per year) and a tax-free living allowance for 3 years (approx. £22-£24k per year if studying full time). Regrettably for financial reasons we can only support UK or naturalised EU applicants. For more information and details of how to apply, please contact Gemma Goldenberg g.goldenberg@uel.ac.uk.

The selection process will comprise of an informal chat via MS Teams, candidates shortlisted from this stage will be invited back for a formal interview with Sam Wass.