How Well Does Your School Support Executive Function Development?

Executive Functioning Skills– The hot new buzzwords in education?

No.

It’s part of our brain processing, and it’s time for schools to understand how it works in order to better support this most crucial aspect of child and adolescent development. Executive function, simply put, is defined as the cognitive skills used to plan life, pay attention, keep calm, and achieve goals. Not the "what" in learning, but the "how".

Viewing many typical school practices through the lens of executive functions development illuminates ways in which schools may be contributing to many of the very difficulties often complained about in their walls– kids not turning in homework, not caring about classes, distracted by technology, etc…  This article discusses a few of these practices and offers absolutely free strategies that schools can adopt to build a solid foundation of executive functions development for their students.

Executive functions (EF) are essential for academic success, personal well-being, future career prospects, happiness, and fulfillment.

Unfortunately, many schools inadvertently and needlessly create a stressful and chaotic environment that can hinder the development of executive functioning skills necessary for school and life. This is because emotional regulation plays a crucial role in our executive functions as it enables/disables our task positive brain processes in trade for behaviors driven by our sympathetic nervous system. Or, in other words, fight, flight, or freeze behaviors show up.  We are sophisticated creatures, too.  That means that the resulting protective behaviors can look like not caring, avoiding assignments, and even cheating and lying.

Schools often confuse blame and responsibility, too. I often hear about how parents, administrators, screens, etc… are responsible for the lack of student motivation and engagement. It’s probably all correct, too, but that is blame and counterproductive to solving problems. Instead, responsibility is the choice to care for something and work toward making it better.  Move the blame aside, and it’s easy to see how school practices also contribute to the problems.  That is the part schools can be responsible for making better, and here’s how.

When students are able to regulate their emotions effectively, they are better equipped to remain in a task-positive brain state. Typically, the behaviors found here are what the adults want to see because this is where learning happens.  That’s why I think it’s crucial for the adults to make sure they aren’t accidentally in the way of students’ task-positive brain states. By focusing on unnecessarily stress-inducing practices, schools may be unintentionally hindering the development of these crucial skills. Below are a few ways I consistently see schools getting in their own way of supporting EF development, and luckily, the fixes are free and found below, too.

1. Poor Learning Management Software (LMS) Usage

• Over Reliance on LMS: Overloading students with assignments and resources through LMS systems can create information overload/overwhelm and prevent students from knowing where to start (task initiation- one of our executive functions).  I’ve seen as high as 100 emails and notifications per week coming at students from multiple LMS platforms. It is unrealistic to expect developing kids and teens to be more organized than their disorganized environment, and it does create understandably and overly stressful situations for many students and parents.

• Assignment Management: Poorly organized LMS platforms and inconsistent usage across teachers can make it difficult for students to navigate and find necessary information. This leads to understandable confusion and frustration that chronically kicks them out of a task positive brain state when school comes to the mind.  I promise, there is a different kid when the stress goes down. Give them an organized system of work. Then you can judge their level of organizational skills. It’s just a reflection of the school until then. 

• Limited Feedback: If teachers do not provide specific feedback, then students do not get to engage in reflection and progress monitoring– another critical executive function. Students may struggle to understand their progress and identify areas for improvement, and often protect themself from this confusion, hopelessness, and shame by giving up or scrolling on their phone to disengage from the untethered and stressful learning. If we are honest, we can probably relate.

2. Relationships with Students

• Lack of Trust: Students who do not feel connected to their teachers or the school may be less likely to engage in learning and seek help when needed. It’s often not your fault teachers, but it is your responsibility to recognize when this occurs and be the adult in managing, developing, and modeling positive working relationships, and even in conflict.

• Poor Rapport: A negative or dismissive attitude from teachers can decrease students' motivation and self-esteem, and absolutely hinder their ability to develop executive functioning skills. I know it’s a tough gig, but poor rapport makes it harder. It is absolutely an imperative part of the job if you want to be successful at it.

• Difficulty Seeking Help: Students who feel uncomfortable or unsupported may be hesitant to ask for help, especially when they are struggling.  The way out of so much of our executive dysfunction is to ask for help. Be approachable. If you aren’t, then kids not asking for help may actually be a reflection of you, and they probably know that already.

3. Not Explicitly Teaching EF Skills

• Assumption of Mastery: Assuming that students will naturally develop EF skills without explicit instruction can lead to significant gaps in their abilities, and those gaps are often filled with protective behavior if we don’t help them fill them with skills. This is a totally normal thing people do when we don’t know what to do and are expected to do so anyway.

• Unrealistic/Unrealized Expectations: Many schools expect well-oiled executive functioning skills from students, but also do nothing to teach them how. It’s common to sit in school meetings and discover that school personnel do not understand what the executive functions are or what they do.  In addition, transitions from elementary to middle, and middle to high school, is riddled with high expectations on the receiving school’s end that is unrealized in the work done at the sending school. When it comes to executive functioning skills development, there is unfortunately a whole lot of ignorance in charge, but that’s fixable with some learning.

• Unnecessarily Stressful Practices: Students who lack essential executive function skills may experience difficulties with emotional regulation, time management, organization, impulsivity, task initiation, and planning, which can negatively impact their academic performance and overall well-being. This isn’t just kids with ADHD, either. Any person can struggle to regulate their emotions in certain situations, and every one of them experiences difficulties in their executive functions as a result. It’s just how we work.  There is no room for unnecessarily stressful school practices that aren’t grounded in executive functions development. It’s biologically happening whether schools understand it or not, so they might as well get on top of things and nurture this development when it matters most.

Free School-Wide Strategies to Support Executive Functions Development

Yes, this article is very pointed and may even ruffle a few feathers.  That’s okay.  Other feathers might get pruned. Just like when a student is improving, you have to meet yourself where you are actually at.  Often, they are defensive when it isn’t going well, too.

So, where is your school at in supporting EF development?

Wherever that may be, these school-wide strategies will surely help your school support students’ crucial development. You’ll notice these strategies truly start at the administrative level and it requires a really honest look at what’s actually happening at school.  That’s how whole-school change begins, so let’s get started.

• Use LMS systems as intended and with fidelity across the whole school.  Collaboration and communication is free. If you find reason this can’t happen, I urge you to get real about what those problems are. What is important to hold on to that prevents the school from using LMS consistently across classrooms?  If you can think of something, please illuminate me. I’ve got nothing.

• Consider school-wide executive functions education paramount. My guess is that your campus is probably lacking in understanding. It’s not an attack.  It’s just a crucial step in doing something better- gotta learn about it first. The world outside of school is.  Jump on board!

• Expect individuals in schools to take responsibility for their rapport with students. Support teachers like crazy, too. Their jobs are seriously stressful, and that makes them have dysregulated emotions just like everyone else. We know this, too- being grumpy affects those around us, especially if we hold power over them.  No one else but the individual can be responsible for their rapport with students. High expectations and lots of support are necessary so that their world isn’t unnecessarily stressful, too.  These things trickle down.

• Vertical school teams need to collaborate on their executive functioning skills development. Elementary schools can do so much to prepare students for more independence of middle school, and middle can do the same for high school. When teachers complain that the sending school isn’t preparing students for their expectations, this is a reflection of a lack of collaboration across the vertical team. This disjointedness falls in the laps of the kids and often presents as disgruntled adults in charge of them in their brand-new environment.

I know, these aren’t your typical suggested strategies. It’s because these are just foundational and should be in schools anyway- quality rapport, organized workflow, collaboration and consistency, and well-informed. But, hey, that’s what makes them free strategies, too, and they have tremendous impact in creating school systems that support, not hinder, executive functions development.