Xiazhen (Seija) is doctoral student at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki.
Her research interests include foreign language acquisition, audiovisual integration, and emotion perception. Together with her supervisors Mari, Minna, and Jenny, they planned a large-scale project in Finland's elementary schools with the focus on Chinese learning at an early stage, and her PhD thesis will be based on this project. She has a background in linguistics particularly in the areas of emotion prosody and speech processing.
Mari is working as research director at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. She is the principal investigator of Fun Chinese project.
She does research in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, Learning Sciences, Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, focusing on the mechanisms of human auditory cognition, emotion, and expertise. She also investigates the possibilities of music to support well-being and learning. Meanwhile, she focuses her efforts to reveal the basic neurocognitive and motivational mechanisms of learning in real-life contexts using multimethodological and interdisciplinary approach.
Minna is working as professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki.
Her research primarily focuses on human cognition, particularly in areas such as learning, auditory memory, attention, musical processing, brain at work especially in young people, children, infants, and even fetuses, mainly with physiological and questionnaire research. Her research also explores the use of music in well-being and education, fetal and neonatal cognition, cognitive aspects of work, and the application of neuroscience in everyday life.
Jenny is a post-doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Helsinki and a docent at the University of Lapland. She holds a doctorate degree from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University and a second doctorate degree from the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki.
Her research focuses on technology in education, teacher education, and the development of 21st-century competencies and social-emotional skills. Her dedication extends to pedagogical methodologies, where she offers research-based courses for both pre-service and in-service teachers and principals. Dr. Niu is a dedicated and versatile professional contributing to the advancement of educational practices.
Ying works as a project planner in this project. She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Sciences from the University of Helsinki.
Ying is experienced in language teaching, interdisciplinary teaching, and instructional design. She is interested in bridging the gap between neuroscience research and classroom practice to make learning enjoyable, engaging, and inclusive.
Yawen works as a research assistant and project teacher in this project. She is a master’s student in the Teaching, Learning and Media Education program of the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University.
She has a background as a primary school teacher in China. Her research interests include student-centered learning, second language acquisition and teacher education.
Yanan works as a research assistant and project teacher in this project. She is a master’s student in the Changing Education program of the University of Helsinki and holds a Master’s degree in Digital Technologies, Communication, and Education (TESOL Pathway) from the University of Manchester.
With a diverse background in education, Yanan has worked as a high school English teacher, a volunteer music teacher in a primary school, and a summer camp teacher focusing on climate change education. She's also a facilitator of some sustainability workshops, such as Climate Fresk and 2 Tonnes. She is deeply passionate about teaching and has research interests in self-regulation in learning and music education.