Research

Social cognitive determiners of academic performance

RTERC Winter School, IIM Ahmedabad, 2019 · top research practicum

Grounded in Bandura's social cognitive theory, this study asks whether the things we usually treat as background — the layout of a room, the mindsets in it, the value systems of the adults around a child — can be controlled well enough to predict academic performance.

The method paired a general self-efficacy survey measuring nine distinct elements with PISA tests administered to three high-rigour learners over three separate days, controlling their experience from the start of each day until the test began. The environmental conditions were varied systematically between sessions; the tests assessed critical thinking, reading comprehension, mathematical thinking, patience and grit, creativity and problem-solving.

The hard part was never the statistics. It was objectively determining learner behaviour while accounting for the number of variables that quietly affect an assessment outcome — which is also the reason findings in this area stay contested.

Truth by design

RSD Symposium, 2023 · paper and presentation

Featured paper and presentation at the Relating Systems Thinking and Design symposium.

Multifunctional spaces and individual + community well-being

Participatory Design Conference, 2022 · presentation

Presented work on how multifunctional space affects well-being at both the individual and the community scale.