As professional educators, we have all encountered the new jargon around students’ skill stack. And parents seem to like the notion of the development of these skills.
I’m talking about executive function skills. The more I read and learn, the more I recognize these as the skill stack of productive citizens that good educators have been imbuing (not indoctrinating) for decades.
Executive function skills are the core skills needed for success in life. These skills may be grouped into categories of brain function: inhibitory control, working memory, and mental flexibility.
Here are the 8 executive function skills that high school students are always developing and honing in school as they become young adults:
- Self-regulation
- Sustained attention
- Task initiation
- Time management
- Organization
- Planning and prioritization
- Cognitive flexibility
- Metacognition
Please understand that not all students are ready to receive executive function skills. Executive function coaching is not an instant fix-all. Just like learning math requires doing assignments, benefiting from coaching means being ready to make a change. Students have the ultimate control of their destiny, and there are no secret techniques that grant classroom success without effort.
Let’s explore!
Self-regulation
Have you heard about the difference between IQ and EQ? IQ (intelligence quotient) is a measure of fluid intelligence while EQ (emotional intelligence) is a measure of one’s emotional control. Historic stoic Marcus Aurelius said that we may not be able to control what happens to us, but we can always control how we react to it.
Rules are meant to encourage students to suppress behaviors that are not supportive of their goals. Uncoached students often wear their emotions on their sleeve. This means “drama queen” students will likely become “drama queen” adults in the workplace who overreact to any perceived transgression. Behavioral control needs to be exercised much like much like a muscle. Use it, or lose it. Meanwhile, they may demand understanding from others under similar circumstances.
The rampant use of social media may be a result of the lack of ability to self-soothe. This is the age of hover parents, bulldozer parents, bubble wrap parents, and so on. Some of these children do not learn how to self-regulate, because they never had to solve their own issues as children and adolescents.
Finally, many students are saturating their dopamine circuits. That is, they is no anticipation of a “dopamine hit.” It is instantly available all day long with apps like TikTok and Instagram. These apps utilize exquisite algorithms that keep our you people (and some older folks) addicted to using the app. Experts say it’s an endless cycle that is similar to drug addicts chasing their first high. The addict finds himself using more and more of his drug to achieve the same high. Similarly, the cell phone addict of today needs more to achieve the same feelings.
How does this relate to education? The pursuit of learning – i.e., the process – is the reward. Although improved scores are a benefit of learning about executive function skills, but they’re an event.
Sustained Attention
This is staple #1 of the Planet Numeracy motto… Learn. Do. Repeat. (Pay attention. Do the work. Don’t give up.)
Learning requires paying attention. But sustained attention goes beyond the teacher saying, “psst… got a second?” Sustained attention speaks mainly to cognitive engagement.
Cognitive engagement is hard! Students are being asked to cognitively engage for 40 minutes at a time 8 or 9 times in a row with a meager 30-minute lunch break in between… and school lunches are not exactly ideally nutritional, made up mostly of oodles of starchy carbohydrates. See any issues?
It’s little wonder that our students grow tired after lunch with carb-induced daydreaming…
And I’m not picking on students. Many adults can’t muster sustained attention throughout their work days. Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, jokes that the ability to sustain attention has become the new “talent” highlighted on adults’ resumes these days.
Task Initiation
Millions of words have been written about the topic of procrastination. Task initiation is the fancier way of asking, “Are we starting non-preferred tasks?” Like math homework, say? Saying that you’re a procrastinator is the same as saying that your task initiative executive function is underdeveloped.
Sometimes I try to reframe this. Students who don’t do homework say that they don’t like doing it… that it’s hard. The irony is that not practicing is the only way that learning math won’t get easier! Their misunderstanding is that they think good students like doing math assignments. They also tend to think that practice is what they do once they’re good, not that it’s the thing that makes them good.
So here’s the reframe…
Good students are no different than bad students. They would also rather be playing video games and so on just like their lower-performing classmates. But they do the practice assignments anyway… on a consistent basis. Over time, the practice gets easier, and the concepts become more understandable.
Task initiation bleeds into time management. We all have the same 24 hours in a day.
Planning and Prioritization
Deciding which goal to pursue first is a solid skill. I often see students who seem to always be “getting ready to get ready.” Sounds funny, I know. But I think they often think that they are waiting for some magical confluence of events… some perfect alignment of the planets that will make their lives work. Friends, that day will never come. That’s probably why injured athletes play with aches and pains.
This overlaps with task initiation. Students often do nothing, because they feel overwhelmed. They don’t know what to do first, because they are afraid to choose the wrong thing. So they do nothing.
Developing prioritization skills is crucial.
This skill is related to task initiation, because we sometimes need to start with an undesirable step in the planning process. Students correctly start with the end in mind. But the end does not get finished in the first step. Remember that Mark Twain did not write The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn sitting at the typewriter for a few hours one day. There were certainly many edits and re-writes. Adolescent “fell swoop thinking” is counter-productive. We must teach students to break things down into smaller bitesize chunks and how to monitor their progress.
Progress monitoring can be motivating in an of itself. Some students like checklists, crossing off days on a calendar, and using highlighters. Any of these can be motivational with planning and prioritization. If they’re visual like me, they may even like the practice of calendar “blocking.”
Time Management
We all have the same 24 hours in a day. How is it that some students hold class officer positions, do assignments in difficult classes, participate in sports, and volunteer for FBLA? They have mastered the executive function skill of time management.
In the smartphone age, “I forgot” is no longer a valid excuse for not doing an assignment. In high school, most students will have frequent assignments. And math practice is a defininite. (Read Math is Not a Subject.)
And nearly every student I see has a smartphone; iPhones seem to be the device of choice. As such, I show students how to do time blocking using the native calendar function on these phones. (An amusing aside… when students “have” to use their tech for schoolwork, some suddenly start leaving it in their locker!)
Although it takes a few weeks to get into the groove, Sunday nights (when I block) are for looking at my schedule blocks for the upcoming week. Students should definitely have a schoolwork/homework block on the calendar each day. Other blocks can be for sports practice, church, doctor appointments, and so on.
Organization
Organization is the ability to find what is needed when it is needed. We’ve all had those students who are still rifling through their backpacks for a pencil or assignment five minutes after the class has started. Seasoned teachers can determine whether this is a cry for attention or a bona fide need for organizational coaching. The student often knows exactly where his pencil is. He just needs the attention of others to “find” it in his bag or doesn’t like cognitive engagement.
If the inability to put their hands on what they need in just moments is a genuine deterrent, the problem can be addressed with appropriate organizational strategies. For instance, I only ever put my phone in one of two places — my left front pocket or on the desk in my home office to charge. Students should have fun making their own rules for keeping track of things.
The main thing to remember with a truly disorganized person is that they may also suffer from disorganization of thought. Be patient. Almost every student can learn to become more organized. Gentle reminders work best.
Cognitive Flexibility
Cognitive flexibility is the antidote to cognitive dissonance. What’s cognitive dissonance? This can occur when we have a student (or anyone) whose “beliefs” are challenged, often by conflicting data. It is usually met with blank stares followed by strange utterances or possibly even name-calling. These are classic tells for cognitive dissonance. This is commonly seen with math students who mistakenly believe that they did a procedure right only to discover that they were wrong.
You also see cognitive dissonance a lot in politics. There are millions of people who still believe the fine people hoax, the Russian collusion coax, the drinking bleach hoax, etc. mostly due to a lack of cognitive flexibility.
At any rate, it’s important to remember that people experiencing cognitive dissonance — including you and me — are usually unaware of it, so use empathy. A cognitively flexible person is able to reflect on long-held beliefs when presented with new information. And they can adjust their attitudes accordingly.
Metacognition
Metacognition is the pinnacle of executive function skills… the pièce de résistance. Metacognition means having an awareness and understanding of our own thought processes. Many education experts say it’s learning how we learn. Awareness of weaknesses and blindspots is an example of using metacognition.
Until next time…
Remember that success is a planned event. Believe in yourself.
Pay attention, do the work, and don’t give up!
And don’t forget to check out my new YouTube channel!
www.youtube.com/@PlanetNumeracy
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