About Project

School burnout has become a global challenge for students, teachers, and parents (Madigan & Curran, 2020; Saloviita & Pakarinen, 2021). This phenomenon is particularly a concern in the contexts of Finland and China.

In Finland, recent studies showed that only 20% of Finnish high school students experienced weekly school engagement (Salmela-Aro, Moeller, et al., 2016), and already at the age of 12 almost half of the students had lost the meaning and value of school (Salmela-Aro, Muotka, et al., 2016).

In China, students are known to have extremely long studying hours and experience anxiety and exhaustion in schools (OECD, 2016, 2019a).

There is not only general growth of school burnout globally, but also inequality of school burnout (e.g., gender burnout disparity, urban-rural wellbeing gaps). Girls reported more exhaustion than boys (Tang et al., 2021). Rural adolescents tend to have higher burnout and other mental health problems than their urban counterparts (OECD, 2019b; Yoon & Järvinen, 2016).

Our work aims to create an innovative solution to alleviate school burnout by bringing new technology (e.g., Artificial Intelligence-based assessments and interventions), and multiple disciplines and perspectives (e.g., psychology, education, AI, design science, behavioral change). Through this novel joint initiative, we can also prevent the inequality of school burnout among gender, social-economic status, and regions. Those goals are in line with the GINTL goals (including UN SDG4 targets) that to solve global educational challenges, improve the students’ wellbeing and growth, and create a more qualified and equal education ecosystem.

This project is funded by Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning (GINTL), created by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture in 2020.