This article is Part 2 of a 3 part series looking at the importance of Executive Functions in upper primary student’s academic success. Read Part 1 here. This paper is the second part of a paper I wrote for a university assignment and therefore is confined in scope to answer the question asked of us within a specific word count.
Academic Research Paper
What are Executive Functions?
Establishing a working definition of Executive Functions (EF) is problematic because researchers have utilised a variety of approaches and operational definitions in their longitudinal studies to measure EF (Fuhs & Day, 2010; Garon, et al., 2008; McClelland & Cameron, 2012). As a result, it is challenging to synthesize the various research findings in a significant way. Notwithstanding, Miyake and colleagues (2000) and Jacob and Parkinson (2015) posit that, in children, researchers agree that EF is an umbrella term that encompasses three independent, and interrelated, sub-capabilities:
- inhibition control,
- cognitive flexibility, and
- working memory.
In contrast, Pascual and colleagues (2019), in their literature review, argued that a separate and interdependent component of EFs in primary school children should also include planning. However, for the purposes of this article planning will be considered as part of inhibition control in line with the more prevalent research. In addition, treating these three sub components as separate constructs allows us to synthesize the research to practically define what effective EFs looks like for the 21st century learner.
Inhibition Control
Effective inhibition control provides students with the ability to plan their days; organise, start and complete tasks; persist with complex coursework; concentrate; and regulate their emotions and control behaviour during stressful situations (Diamond, 2013).
Cognitive Flexibility
Cognitive flexibility assists students to prioritise work, adapt to changing demands and new tasks quickly, to change perspective and find multiple solutions to a math problem (Wagner et al., 2019).
Working Memory
Lastly, working memory is responsible for processing information. Students with effective working memory follow verbal instructions, retain important information, perform mental tasks such as in mathematics, and comprehend what they read (Blair & McKinnon, 2016; Diamond, 2016). From a cognitive capability view, it is incredibly important that teachers understand working memory and how it affects information processing.
Working memory is the volt where new information is held before being combined with long term memory. Learners can retain between fifteen to twenty seconds of new information at a time (Baddeley, 2001) and can process between five to nine pieces of information at a time (Woolfolk, 2016). At this point, the information being processed by the student may or may not be transferred to long term memory. It is pivotal for teacher’s pedagogy to incorporate strategies that move information from shot term memory to long term memory, so that students can recall it later because poor working memory can lead to poor language skills or language impairment (Bergin et al., 2018).
Read part 3 here.
References
Baddeley, A.D. (2001). Is working memory still working? The American Psychologist, 56(11), 851–864. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.11.851
Bergin, C.C., Bergin, D.A., Walker, S., Daniel, G., Fenton, A., & Subban, P. (2018). Child and adolescent development for educators (1st ed.). Cengage.
Blair, C., & McKinnon, R.D. (2016). Moderating effects of executive functions and the teacher–child relationship on the development of mathematics ability in kindergarten. Learning and Instruction, 41, 85–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2015.10.001
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
Diamond, A. (2016). Why improving and assessing executive functions in early life is critical. In J.P. Griffin, McCardle & L. Freund (Eds.), Executive function in pre-school aged children: Integrating measurement, neurodevelopment, and translational research (pp.11-43). American Psychological Association.
Fuhs, M.W., & Day, J.D. (2011). Verbal Ability and Executive Functioning Development in Preschoolers at Head Start. Developmental Psychology, 47(2), 404–416. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021065
Garon, N., Bryson, S., & Smith, I. (2008). Executive Function in Preschoolers: A Review Using an Integrative Framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134(1), 31–60. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.31
Jacob, R., & Parkinson, J. (2015). The Potential for School-Based Interventions That Target Executive Function to Improve Academic Achievement: A Review. Review of Educational Research, 85(4), 512–552. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654314561338
McClelland, M.M., & Cameron, C.E. (2012). Self-Regulation in Early Childhood: Improving Conceptual Clarity and Developing Ecologically Valid Measures. Child Development Perspectives, 6(2), 136–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00191.x
Miyake, A., Friedman, N.P., Emerson, M.J., Witzki, A.H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T.D. (2000). The Unity and Diversity of Executive Functions and Their Contributions to Complex “Frontal Lobe” Tasks: A Latent Variable Analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41(1), 49–100. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1999.0734
Wagner, B., Olson, H., Symons, M., Mazzucchelli, T., Jirikowic, T., Latimer, J., Watkins, R., Cross, D., Boulton, J., Wright, E., Carter, M., Bruce, K., Cherel, S., & Fitzpatrick, J. (2019). Improving self-regulation and executive functioning skills in primary school children in a remote Australian Aboriginal community: A pilot study of the Alert Program. The Australian Journal of Education, 63(1), 98–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944119826206
Woolfolk, A., & Margetts, K. (2016). Child and adolescent development and learning: this custom book is compiled from Educational Psychology (Custom, 4th ed.). Pearson Australia.
