Are you excited about advancing the next generation of engineering education? Do you want to investigate how student teams navigate the
socio-emotional aspects of learning while solving complex, real-world challenges? Then this 2-year postdoc position at the Department of Applied Physics and Science Education may be the perfect next step in your academic career.
Eindhoven University of Technology’s
Strategy 2030 highlights a university-wide transition toward challenge-based learning (CBL) as a central educational model. At the heart of CBL are multidisciplinary student teams working on authentic, open-ended problems, requiring the ability to regulate motivation, emotions, and social interactions effectively.
Building on previous work on Socially Shared Regulation of Learning (SSRL), this postdoctoral project will focus more explicitly on socio-emotional processes in team learning, investigating how emotions, motivation, group climate, and interpersonal regulation shape learning and performance in engineering multidisciplinary student teams. The project offers opportunities for collaboration with other ongoing research projects on team learning in CBL, while allowing the postdoc to develop their own research line within this broader theme.
Project FocusThis Postdoc research aims to:
- Advance theoretical and empirical understanding of socio-emotional processes and team regulation in engineering student teams working within CBL environments.
- Identify mechanisms and team conditions that foster productive collaboration, resilience, and shared regulation under demanding situations.
- Contribute to methodological innovation to study socio-emotional and regulatory processes (e.g., multimodal data, process-oriented analyses).
The project allows significant room for the postdoctoral researcher to refine the specific research questions, develop new methodological approaches, and pursue collaborations within the department.
InformationAs a Postdoctoral Researcher, you will:
- Lead the development of theoretical and conceptual contributions on socio-emotional processes in team learning.
- Design and carry out empirical studies using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method approaches.
- Develop or refine assessment instruments, observational frameworks, or analytic methodologies for capturing socio-emotional and regulatory processes in teams.
- Publish high-quality academic papers in international journals and present findings at leading conferences.
- Support and collaborate with PhD students and other researchers working on related topics.
- Contribute to the vibrant research community in educational innovation at TU/e.
The Department of Applied Physics and Science Education is a research-driven department housing high-quality educational programs, all featuring strong connections between research and education. Our research is clustered in three focal areas: Fluids, Bio and Soft Matter (FBSM); Plasmas and Beams (PB); and Nano, Quantum and Photonics (NQP). Our shared ambition is to equip the next generation of ‘engineers of the future’ with the knowledge and the skills they will need to impact science, innovation, and society, from regional to global scales.