Profile

Professional career

• 01/2021 - 06/2023
  Director of the Leipzig Research Center for Early Childhood Development (LFE)
• 10/2017 - 10/2023
  Vice Dean Research and International Affairs of the Faculty of Education
• since 04/2015
  Professor (W3) of Educational Psychology, Leipzig University
• since 04/2015
  Call for the professorship of Educational Science and Psychology of Learning and Instruction, University of Hamburg
• 04/2013 - 03/2015
  Professor (W3) for Research in Learning and Instruction/Primary school education, Saarland University
• 09/2008 - 05/2012
  Lectureships on psychology of learning and didactics of people and the environment at the PH Schwyz and PH Lucerne
• 04/2007 - 03/2013
  Senior Assistant at the Chair of Research on Learning and Instruction, ETH Zurich
• 09/2006 - 04/2007
  Post-doc at Keio University (Japan) and Beijing University (China)
• 12/2003 - 07/2006
  PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (with E. Stern)
• 09/2002 - 11/2003
  Postgraduate studies at the Beijing University, China
• 10/1996 - 07/1999
  Research Assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (with W. Edelstein)

Education

• since 07/2006
  Dr. phil. in Psychology at Berlin Technical University
• 09/1999 - 06/2000
  Study of Chinese language at Xiamen University, China, Study of Cognitive Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
• 04/1996 - 06/2002
  Studied psychology at Berlin Technical University (degree: Diplom)
• 11/1994 - 02/1996
  Communitiy service at Johanniter Leipzig
• since 07/1994
  Abitur at Humboldt School Leipzig
• since 06/1992
  Diploma at Fort Osage High School, Independence, Missouri, USA

My research is focused on the relation between language, cognitive development, and academic learning taking two approaches: First, I study the effect of specific linguistic structures on cognitive functions and their development. Second, I examine effects of languages skills and status (monolingual vs. bilingual) on academic learning and executive functions as well as in contexts of Content and Language Integrated Learning. I am further interested in studying the quality of preschool teachers’ verbal scaffolding and its effect on children’s domain-specific learning. I have conducted experimental intervention studies both in the lab and in the field using video-based observational and individual data of children and teachers within a longitudinal multi-level design. I have recently extended my research into the domain of emotions. In particular, I am studying the development of emotion vocabulary as a system and its relation to the development of emotional competence.

• Professional Development in formative diagnostics within inclusive early science education (ProFinK)

  Bürgermeister, Anika

  Duration: 08/2021 – 07/2024

  Funded by: BMBF Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Pädagogische Psychologie mit dem Schwerpunkt Lehren, Lernen und Entwicklung
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• Functions of language in children’s development of emotion regulation: A multimethod approach

  Saalbach, Henrik

  Duration: 10/2021 – 09/2024

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Pädagogische Psychologie mit dem Schwerpunkt Lehren, Lernen und Entwicklung
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• Encoding-specificity in bilingual content learning: Scrutinizing language switching costs in mathematical knowledge acquisition

  Saalbach, Henrik

  Duration: 03/2023 – 02/2026

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Pädagogische Psychologie mit dem Schwerpunkt Lehren, Lernen und Entwicklung
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• Monitor Education and Mental Health

  Schmitz, Julian

  Duration: 01/2023 – 12/2026

  Funded by: Stiftungen Inland

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Pädagogische Psychologie mit dem Schwerpunkt Lehren, Lernen und Entwicklung
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• Participation and contingent scaffolding: classroom discourse in primary science education

  Herrmann, Annika Ann-Marie

  Duration: 04/2019 – 06/2024

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Grundschuldidaktik Sachunterricht unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Naturwissenschaft und Technik; Pädagogische Psychologie mit dem Schwerpunkt Lehren, Lernen und Entwicklung
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more projects

• Enke, S.; Gunzenhauser, C.; Hepach, R.; Karbach, J.; Saalbach, H.

  Differences in cognitive processing? The role of verbal processes and mental effort in bilingual and monolingual children’s planning performance

  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2022. p. 105255.

  DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105255
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• Markwalder, U.; Saalbach, H.; Schalk, L.

  Elephants are Gray: Linguistic Sensitivity and the Use of Generic Utterances in Pedagogical and Nonpedagogical Contexts

  Cognitive Science. 2022.

  DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13173
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• Schulze, C.; Saalbach, H.

  Socio-cognitive engagement (but not socioeconomic status) predicts preschool children’s language and pragmatic abilities.

  Journal of Child Language. 2022. 49 (4). pp. 839–849.

  DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000921000295
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• Grosse, G.; Streubel, B.; Gunzenhauser, C.; Saalbach, H.

  Let’s Talk About Emotions: the Development of Children’s Emotion Vocabulary from 4 to 11 Years of Age

  Affective Science. 2021. 2 (2). pp. 150–162.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00040-2
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• Studhalter, U.; Leuchter, M.; Tettenborn, A.; Elmer, A.; Saalbach, H.

  Early science learning: The effects of teacher talk.

  Learning & Instruction. 2021.

  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101371
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more publications