معرفی
Ita Puusepp is a visiting researcher in the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki's Faculty of Education. She is actively affiliated with multiple research groups including School Pedagogy, Brain, Music and Learning, and Learning, Culture & Interventions (LECI). Her ORCID profile (0000-0002-0281-138X) documents her scholarly contributions across educational psychology and neuroscience.
Dr. Puusepp's research centers on educational psychology with a focus on mindset theory, particularly examining growth and fixed mindsets across intelligence, giftedness, and creativity domains. Her work uniquely bridges psychological theory with neuroscientific evidence, investigating how physiological responses during learning tasks correlate with mindset profiles and academic achievement. She specializes in Finnish educational contexts, conducting studies with elementary and lower-secondary students to understand domain-specific belief systems and their impact on learning outcomes.
Her publication record shows a clear trajectory toward integrating neuroscience with educational research, with recent work exploring physiological arousal during arithmetic tasks and how these responses interact with students' mindset profiles. The research demonstrates significant gender differences in mindset formation and reveals how specific mindset combinations (such as the "Opposing" profile combining growth mindset for intelligence with fixed mindset for giftedness) produce distinct academic outcomes across subject areas.
Dr. Puusepp actively participates in major international conferences including EARLI, AERA, and the International Conference on Motivation & Emotion. She serves as both presenter and teacher at workshops like the University of Helsinki's Owl Academy Brain and Learning Workshop. Her research is supported by the CoPErNicus project (Changing Mindsets about Learning: Connecting Psychological, Educational, and Neuroscientific Evidence), where she contributes as a key participant alongside principal investigator Kirsi Tirri.
Her work primarily focuses on Finnish educational settings but has implications for international educational psychology and neuroscience communities. The research demonstrates practical applications for developing targeted mindset interventions that consider domain-specificity and physiological correlates of learning processes.
