91porn

A child development researcher on promoting learning, school success and life skills by teaching reflection and attention regulation to students

Scientific research on the developing brain has confirmed what many educators have long known: Learning, particularly in school settings, requires not only attention to what is being taught, but also a set of attention-regulation skills that make it possible for students to focus their attention, ignore distractions, keep information in mind, adopt new perspectives and manage their emotions and behavior.

These attention-regulation skills are studied under the rubric of executive function skills, or EF skills, and scientists now know a great deal about them 鈥� what they are, how to measure them, how they develop, how they are related to developing brain networks, how to cultivate their development and how they contribute to important developmental outcomes relating to academics and life success.

EF skills are strongly related to academic success and other real-world outcomes from early childhood into adulthood, often more so than intelligence or socioeconomic status. Having more proficient EF skills is associated with better school readiness in preschool, a more successful transition to kindergarten, higher levels of academic achievement in elementary school and high school, and a greater likelihood of completing high school and college.

In adulthood, stronger EF skills are associated with job success, relationship success, better physical health and higher socioeconomic status. In contrast, difficulties with EF play a prominent role in clinical conditions that interfere with learning in school, including learning difficulties but also attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and emotional and behavioral disorders.

Defining EF Skills

Executive function skills are the brain-based skills that allow for the deliberate control of attention. Human beings often can manage on 鈥渁uto-pilot,鈥� but when they encounter new challenges or uncertain situations, they need to switch out of autopilot, be more intentional and try to adapt to overcome the challenge. Together with metacognitive reflection, EF skills support this kind of intentional adaptation to new challenges, which is an essential part of learning new things and new ways of behaving.

The first step toward intentional adaptation involves metacognitive reflection, which is manifested as (a) noticing uncertainty, (b) pausing and (c) considering the context. That is, first one has to notice there is a challenge or new problem to be solved. A student might be solving a series of addition problems, for example, and then notice that the operation in the next problem changed from addition to multiplication. Noticing this and pausing interrupts automatic, reflexive processing (i.e., continuing to add the operands), and allows the student to assess the new context, consider his or her goals and remember relevant information. It is from this reflective perspective that one can invoke and strategically deploy one鈥檚 EF skills.

EF skills vary along a continuum from more 鈥渃ognitive鈥� to more 鈥渆motional,鈥� and indeed, sometimes students will show quite proficient 鈥渃ool鈥� EF skills (e.g., good deliberate reasoning and problem solving in a math class) but still have difficulty with 鈥渉ot鈥� EF skills when the stakes are high, as on a high-stakes test or in stressful social situations with peers.

As shown in the first column in the accompanying graphic, cool EF skills include working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. Working memory involves keeping information in mind so it can be used to guide action. Inhibitory control involves resisting distractions and suppressing habitual or reflexive responding (e.g., stopping an impulsive utterance). Cognitive flexibility involves thinking about something in multiple ways 鈥� for example, shifting attention from one鈥檚 own to someone else鈥檚 perspective on a situation or thinking about a familiar topic in a new way.

Scientists typically measure these cool EF skills in relatively neutral contexts. For example, students might be instructed to indicate quickly which direction a particular arrow is pointing while ignoring distracting arrows.

Hot EF skills, in contrast, are measured in motivationally significant situations involving meaningful consequences (rewards and losses). One might be asked whether to forego a small immediate reward ($10 now) and instead wait for a larger one ($100 in a week) 鈥� a delay of gratification.

Cool and hot EF skills depend on brain networks involving the front third of the brain (prefrontal cortex), but they rely on different parts of this brain region. Likewise, cool and hot EF skills typically work together when adapting to real-world challenges, but they play different roles (i.e., cognitive vs. emotional regulation).

Whereas cool EF is more strongly associated with academic outcomes in students, including math and reading, poor hot EF is more strongly associated with problem behaviors in school (e.g., inattentive and overactive behavior).

Skills for School

EF skills are important for real-world outcomes, such as success in school, because they facilitate learning. Children with strong EF skills actually learn more (i.e., retain more information) from a given amount of instruction, and they show larger year-over-year gains in academic achievement.

EF skills allow for more engaged, active and reflective forms of learning, which leads to deeper understanding and longer-lasting learning so that relevant information can be more easily retrieved and used in the moment to adapt.

EF skills also are important for school success because they are essential for translating knowledge into action. When it comes to solving problems and adapting to life鈥檚 challenges, it turns out it鈥檚 not only what you know that matters, but also whether you have the EF skills to keep the right information in mind at the right time, and act on it in a timely fashion.

Practicing These Skills

Educators can provide students with opportunities to practice and improve their executive function skills.

Research on the developing brain shows that repeatedly using one鈥檚 brain in a particular way 鈥� activating specific neural pathways 鈥� changes those pathways and makes them more efficient, so they can be used more reliably and effectively in the future. We grow our brains by using our brains, and we grow them in particular ways by using them in particular ways.

We continue to develop EF skills into adulthood, leaving a long 鈥渨indow of opportunity鈥� during which these skills can be supported and improved. Research with young children, youth and adults now shows clearly that EF skills improve when individuals are given opportunities to practice these skills under supportive conditions 鈥� by calibrating the difficulty level of the EF challenges that individuals face without causing undue stress.

It鈥檚 also important to train EF skills in a range of real-world contexts (e.g., in school in the context of math lessons) and to help learners reflect on the skills they鈥檙e learning so they know when to use those skills and how to apply them when solving new problems or adapting to new challenges.

As also shown in the accompanying graphic, the link between reflection and specific EF skills on the one hand and real-world outcomes on the other is indirect. EF skills lead to outcomes such as school success only to the extent they first contribute to intermediate-level EF-based life skills 鈥� configurations of specific EF skills and non-EF skills that are used when reasoning and solving problems in a variety of domains.

Think about perspective taking, an EF-based life skill. Considering another person鈥檚 point of view requires inhibitory control to set aside one鈥檚 own perspective and cognitive flexibility to switch between perspectives. Perspective taking also can require hot EF (e.g., when appreciating someone else鈥檚 point of view during a heated argument). Students rely on perspective taking when learning new things about a topic; perspective taking is also needed in the context of social relationships.

EF skills can be promoted by training EF-based life skills like perspective taking so that students acquire EF skills more directly relevant to school success. Starting in pre-kindergarten and continuing through high school, educators can help students develop their EF skills by providing scaffolded opportunities to practice EF-based life skills, such as goal setting, perspective taking and decision making.

Rather than focusing exclusively on traditional content, educators can teach students how to reflect and use their EF skills to set goals, take another person鈥檚 perspective and make considered decisions. Doing so teaches students how to learn, how to solve problems and how to adapt. In fact, it is relatively easy to teach reading, writing and math to students who first have learned how to pay attention, keep information in mind and reflect on what they are learning.

Importantly, the cultivation of executive function-based life skills can occur in the context of teaching traditional content. For example, instructors can become aware of the extent to which their math lessons challenge students鈥� EF skills, and lessons can be designed in a way that gradually increases EF demands. This is the focus of our ongoing work with the team at CueThink.com to create a digital learning system, known as CueThinkEF+, that embeds EF supports within high-quality math content and instruction.

In addition, Ellen Galinsky and I are working with 91porn to identify cohorts of teachers, principals, superintendents, learning specialists and youth to co-develop EF training and tools and integrate these supports into teachers鈥� daily activities. We believe students with stronger EF skills who learn more easily are more likely to enjoy school, get along with teachers and peers, and be motivated to work hard for larger, longer-term outcomes. n

Philip Zelazo is the Nancy M. and John E. Lindahl Professor at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn.