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\title{Minding the Executive: Executive Functioning and Self-directed Learning}



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  \date{June 16, 2024}


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Stop and think about the education you amassed to get to the point you
are now---the late nights studying for finals; countless hours preparing
for entrance exams; the papers written, edited, and revised to convey
just the right message? If you're a Talking Heads fan you probably hear
David Burns asking, ``How did I get here?''

Our paths may be unique, but we all share an important ability that got
us to this point, an ability perhaps more important to our academic
success but equally challenging to teach than the knowledge we have
gained along the way---a well-developed set of executive skills.

In the 1960s, Russian neuropsychologist
\href{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Luria}{Alexander Luria}
began studying the behavior of individuals with frontal lobe injuries,
who while functioning normally in many ways, also demonstrated profound
social, emotional, or cognitive dysfunctions. For example, a patient
asked to raise his arm off a table might be able to do so but become
confused if his arm was covered with a sheet because he was not
specifically told to remove the sheet before raising his arm. Similarly,
a patient's attention to a task might be easily interrupted by the sound
of an object dropped on the floor.

Through this work, Luria and his contemporaries uncovered a set of
mental skills that serve as a chief executive for other cognitive
processes. These meta-cognitive processes, which have come to be known
as
\href{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cCNhKqQXOM\&feature=related}{executive
functions}~or skills, include affective skills, such as empathy, social
understanding, and emotional self-regulation, and task-oriented skills,
such as planning, memory retrieval, focused or flexible attention, and
problem solving.

From Luria's research, we can draw a clear line between executive skills
and learning. So often in education we focus our energies on content and
pedagogy, assuming that students naturally develop the skills to become
active and self-directed learners. But anyone who has spent time in the
classroom knows this assumption rarely holds. There is growing evidence
about the importance of executive skills for
\href{https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/JRLP.143.4.405-426}{self-regulated
learning},
\href{https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8624.00333}{impulsivity
control}, and
\href{https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00652.x}{resiliency}
in the face of challenges. Of course, this is science confirming what we
already know to some extent. Consider how often you may have showed
impulsivity control by giving up time with your friends to study for an
exam or complete the final draft of a paper. Without well-developed
executive skills to monitor and adjust your thoughts and behavior, this
would not be possible.

What, if any, activities do you use with students to improve their
executive skills? Are there particular executive skills that would
benefit your students? Do you think this might vary by age/grade level?

For an accessible primer on executive function in education
see~\href{https://books.google.com/books?hl=en\&lr=\&id=xaafOGu0fSIC\&oi=fnd\&pg=PA1\&dq=executive+function+in+education+from+theory+to+practice+lynn+meltzer\&ots=WrxM5bRFsk\&sig=20RJyEmEluBIAeOkOhA_WETzVZU\#v=onepage\&q=executive\%20function\%20in\%20education\%20from\%20theory\%20to\%20practice\%20lynn\%20meltzer\&f=false}{Executive
Function in Education: From Theory to Practice~}by Lynn Meltzer.

\par\null

\textbf{}This post first appeared at McREL International
\url{https://www.mcrel.org/blog/}

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