Options for Executive Functioning
This guideline details ways in which educators can provide guidance for goal setting, planning and organization, managing information, and monitoring progress. Goal setting is, again, contextual and discipline specific. Having students reflect on their goals and how they can align to the course can be an opportunity for them to further connect the course and course materials to their lived experience.
The following videos give examples of checking our own biases around executive functioning and proceeding with ways to support goal setting.
Hear Juana Gonzalez-Santos, a biology professor in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, reflect on how educators often assume others like to learn the way they did and do. She prompts us to consider the many ways lifelong learning, including executive functioning, can present in our students.
A Professor Reflects On How Our Own Biases Influence How We Perceive Life-long Learning
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>> I found this cartoon in the internet, of course. And I find it’s quite ironic so-- and I, I, I mention [indiscernible] sometimes I feel that I’m the professor-- sometimes we want to mold the students the way-- according to the way we are. And by doing that, we go against the UDL principle, no? Sometimes we appreciate the students that are the way we used to be as a students at the expense of those that have different styles, no? And, of course, this is not the goal and we are aware of that, yeah? So if we want the students to really be life-long learners, independent thinkers, we have to appreciate their unique styles of learning.
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A professor reflects on how our own biases influence how we perceive lifelong learning - Runtime 1:25 min
https://youtu.be/dLkVeCMym_o
In this video, Joanna Friend, a professor and faculty facilitator, explains how learners vary in their ability to monitor progress, plan, organize, and predict how long it takes to complete multi-step projects. She provides an example of how she embeds this metacognitive skill development into her course assignments.
Supporting Executive Function Variability
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>> Executive functions are the mental processes that enable learners to plan ahead and reflect on past learning experiences, start and finish a task, and manage their time. They can affect how they go about setting up strategies to learn in the present and also how to plan and organize for the future. These skills also require a learners’ ability to access and juggle many thinking skills at the same time.
Executive functioning skills can also impact how one interacts with others. They help us to control our emotions, identify and find solutions for a problem, monitor and stop our actions, evaluate our thoughts, and give ourselves direction through selftalk. These skills require multiple higher order thinking processes to help learners organize their learning path and needs. This is why it is sometimes called the conductor or the CEO of our brains.
All learners differ in their abilities to execute these thinking skills at the right time and in the right place. And it is very context-driven. Sometimes learners’ executive thinking will not be functioning the way it normally does because of stress, feeling overwhelmed, environmental stimuli, fears or just a bad night’s sleep. Sometimes it is just the way their brain is wired too, such as in the case of some learners who have learning disabilities or ADHD.
I consider this range of ability when I design assignments and learning activities. For example, if my students are given a multi-step project, I break it down into several steps so that they can begin to evaluate where their time should be allotted for each step. We also, as a class, discuss what they believe is realistic about how much time each step may take and consider what to do if we are stuck on a step. I also offer a template where they can fill out each of these steps and indicate how much time they may take and have them spend time inputting these steps throughout their agendas or calendars. Many students already use the calendar app on their phones and set reminders and notifications just like meetings or appointments.
I also encourage learners to go back and reflect on the estimated time versus the actual time it took them to complete a step related to the project. This way they can learn to monitor independently and they are building the awareness and insight needed to be able to plan for themselves for future multi-step projects. We take these skills for granted and some of us may already intuitively do this. But for many learners, they need more structure to develop these skills so that they can become life-long, independent, strategic and goal-oriented learners; key ingredients of what CAST refers to as ‘expert learners’.
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Supporting Executive Function Variability - Runtime 3:25 min
https://youtu.be/GrhyLVoi5mU
The “How” of Learning: Our Brain’s Strategic Networks
Strategic networks are responsible for executive functioning. This includes cognitive flexibility and the memory operations used to regulate inhibitions, manage complex tasks, and reflect on progress. Strategic networks of the brain correspond to the UDL principle of Action and Expression.
Our brain’s strategic networks include the prefrontal cortex, which is largely responsible for executive functioning. Executive functioning includes the abilities to regulate inhibitions, operate working memory, and be cognitively flexible when managing complex tasks (Reid, 2019). Executive functioning requires students to “consistently reflect on their progress and be flexible enough to choose more appropriate strategies in an attempt to successfully complete the task” (Chardin & Novak, 2020). Online learning, perhaps more so than face-to-face learning, requires students to be increasingly independent if the synchronous elements of the course are decreased or if the scaffolds in the online course are not as apparent. There are many ways to support students’ development of executive functioning in the online environment. At the beginning of a course and program, it’s important to develop shared expectations for how to engage in the learning environment. These ideally support the learning goals of the course and what students are hoping to achieve through their learning. Clear goals are central and meaningfully drive our nervous systems to “build connections, connect to background knowledge, and practice for expertise” (CAST, 2018).