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Research opportunities
York has active research in children’s language and literacy, mathematics, learning and memory, mental health and wellbeing, neurodevelopmental disorders, sleep, social development, and vision. We frequently have opportunities for schools, pupils, and families to shape and participate in national and international research studies.
Many research studies take place in school, giving pupils an opportunity to see science in action. Researchers are always keen to discuss ways to maximise the benefits of a school's participation. This might be through staff room discussions, related science activities for pupils, or feedback on class assessments.
Other studies work with families outside of school time. Schools and practitioners can support this research by promoting opportunities to interested families, for example via school newsletters.
Current research opportunities are posted below.
Studies recruiting teachers and/or pupils
Studies recruiting teachers and/or pupils
Learning across childhood
Learning across childhood
The development of learning and decision-making strategies is essential for understanding how people explore the world from childhood into adulthood, and how people approach new learning situations. Learning new information also depends on thinking about different rules and being able to apply these rules depending on the context and goals. With this project, we study what helps children learn from day-to-day experiences and develop their knowledge about the world as they grow and what are the most important changes they go through.
Recruiting:
Recruiting:
We are looking for Pre-school groups up to Year 2 classes (children between 3 to 7 years old) to participate in small groups activities where they play a series of simple computer games. Each child will receive a thank you token (e.g. fidget toy or stationery) and a certificate.
The class teacher will be asked to help by completing 2 brief questionnaires for each of the participating children (they have the option to opt out).
Each participating class completing both the computer task and the questionnaires will receive £20 Amazon voucher. The classes helping only with the computer games will receive £10 Amazon voucher.
Full information can be found here, or by emailing Nico Gavrila (nicoleta.gavrila@york.ac.uk) and Flo Stow (florence.stow@york.ac.uk).
[Picture designed by Magnific]
Word learning from childhood to adulthood
Word learning from childhood to adulthood
This study investigates how children learn and remember new words over time, and whether different learning activities support long-term memory in different ways. We compare children’s word learning with adults’ to better understand which memory processes change with development. Importantly, this will guide our future study to track how processes mature over the intervening period of adolescence.
Recruiting:
Recruiting:
Year 4 and Year 5 classes (aged 8–10) to participate in word-learning activities. Pupils will take part in three short, game-like computer sessions over one week, in which they learn and remember the names of novel creatures.
We will soon be recruiting secondary schools - more information coming soon!
Further information for primary school headteachers can be found here. Please email the Learn Lab York team (psychology-learnlab@york.ac.uk) if you would like to discuss participation.
[Picture designed by Freepik]
Challenging sexism in schools
Challenging sexism in schools
From September 2026, teaching about the harms associated with misogyny is now part of the national curriculum under the new Department for Education RSHE guidance. Our research lab has collaborated with the PSHE Association to create classes that meet these new requirements. We would like support from teachers to understand whether these lessons are effective in reducing sexism in schools. The project involves delivering the lessons with KS3 PSHE classes, where students will additionally complete a questionnaire to measure their gender attitudes.
Recruiting:
Recruiting:
We are recruiting mainstream secondary school anywhere in England and Wales to take part in the project. Teachers will be provided with training to deliver the project in their school. Children in KS3 will take part in the project in their PSHE classes.
Participating schools will receive a £250 Amazon voucher alongside further opportunities for professional development and/or school assemblies.
For more information, please see the full information sheet and contact us on challenging-sexism-project@york.ac.uk
[Picture designed by Magnific]
Studies recruiting families through schools
Studies recruiting families through schools
What do eye movements tell us about how we thinking about fractions and decimal numbers?
What do eye movements tell us about how we thinking about fractions and decimal numbers?
Researchers in the Numerical Cognition Lab, with help from eye-tracking technology, are trying to better understand how we think about fractions and decimal numbers. We are inviting children in Year 6 and Year 9 to visit us at the Department of Psychology, University of York, to play maths games and answer maths questions. All maths abilities are welcome!
Recruiting:
Recruiting:
Children in Year 9
Please email Nicoleta Gavrila (nicoleta.gavrila@york.ac.uk) if you are able to circulate an advert to parents in your school, or ask interested parents to complete the form here.
How does the brain learn and make decisions over adolescence?
How does the brain learn and make decisions over adolescence?
The Developmental Neuroscience Lab at the University of York are exploring how people learn and make decisions and how that changes as we age. The study is investigating how people use different types of information to make a decision and how that depends on the way the brain is developing across adolescence. The project involves participants playing a short computer-based task while we collect images of their brain using an MRI scan.
Recruiting:
Recruiting:
Adolescents aged 13-17 years
Adults aged 25-29 years
Please click here for more detailed information, and email Dr MaryAnn Noonan (maryann.noonan@york.ac.uk) if you would be able to circulate this information in your school.
Archive
Archive
Looking quiet above? We're sure to have more studies up and running again soon. Here's a taste of our recently completed projects:
Improving Wellbeing-Focused Media Literacy Education in Schools. Secondary school teachers took part in online focus groups for a new research study exploring how media, technology, and wellbeing content are taught as part of RSHE/PSHE. Young people themselves have also joined a Youth Advisory Board to guide the project moving forwards.
Supporting vocabulary at secondary school: taking stock and moving forwards. We collected survey responses from secondary school teachers on current vocabulary practices in their school, ahead of a one-day research and practice workshop with teachers across Yorkshire.
“Understanding Sexism”: an intervention school lesson. This study trialled a new lesson to encourage adolescents to critically engage with sexist content on social media, designed to advise the new statutory guidance regarding online misogyny.
How do we reason about numbers and arithmetic problems? This study recruited primary school children to help us understanding how children and adults solve addition and subtraction problems.
Sleep, executive function, and maths anxiety in adolescents. This study explored secondary school pupils' anxieties about maths, and whether these feelings were linked to sleep and executive functions (cognitive processes that enable us to plan, monitor and execute goals).
Feedback on "Understanding Sexism": an intervention school lesson. We sought feedback from British teachers about a new, educational intervention lesson created to encourage adolescents to critically engage with sexist social media content.
The links between language, emotion, and sleep. Emotions are an interesting class of words - and so important for children to be able to relate to others and manage their own behaviour. This project examined how parents and children use emotion-related language, and emotion language is related to sleep, mental health and wider communication abilities.
Student survey on smartphone use, sleep, and wellbeing. This project invited schools and sixth form colleges to take part in an online survey examining students’ attitudes towards smartphone and social media usage, and how these may relate to sleep and mental wellbeing.
Camouflaging in Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). You might have come across the idea of “camouflaging” or “masking” in relation to autism. This is where autistic people might cover up their differences to non-autistic peers, perhaps even without knowing they are doing so, in order to fit in and avoid trouble. This project explored camouflaging in DLD, a common but very under-recognised neurodevelopmental condition.
How do we integrate information in memory at different stages of development? Integrating information in memory is a fundamental part of learning. This project worked with Year 4 and Year 5 pupils to look at how this ability changes from childhood to adulthood.
Rethinking Special Educational Needs. The traditional diagnostic criteria for SENs and mental health difficulties do not always capture the full range of strengths and challenges faced by children. This project gained feedback from SENCOs, teachers, and families on alternative profiles of strengths and difficulties.
To be first to hear about these opportunities, please join the network, and do get in touch if you have particular areas of interest.
To be first to hear about these opportunities, please join the network, and do get in touch if you have particular areas of interest.
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