A student understands a math concept at a high level but has trouble getting started on the assignment. Another has creative ideas for a project but struggles to organize the steps to bring those ideas to life. A third becomes frustrated when a first approach does not work and needs help stepping back and trying something different.
These experiences are familiar to teachers and parents. They are also examples of executive functioning at work.
Executive functioning refers to the skills we use to manage our learning and ourselves. They help us plan and organize, begin tasks, manage our time and attention, adapt when something is not working, persist through challenges, and reflect on our progress.
These skills matter for every learner. They are often the keys to fully applying our intellect and understanding.
This year, executive functioning is one area of focus within our broader schoolwide goal of meeting the needs of all learners. Our work begins with something our teachers have always done: paying attention not only to what students are learning, but to how they learn.
Our teachers already recognize and respond to students’ developing executive functioning skills every day, often drawing on years of training, experience, and instinct. This year, we are building on that good teaching by becoming more intentional about how we recognize and talk about these skills and by developing a common language that can be shared across classrooms, grade levels, and eventually between school and home.
Supporting Challenge
Understanding one’s own executive functioning becomes increasingly important as students are asked to engage in more complex, sophisticated, and abstract thinking.
Knowing something is only part of learning. Students also need to be able to decide how to approach a problem, organize their thinking, manage multiple steps, persist when the answer is not immediately apparent, change course when a strategy is not working, and reflect on what they have learned.
These skills are what allow students to navigate beyond their current level of understanding, stretching and growing their thinking. Students can often meet expectations by relying on what they already know; strong executive function skills give them the capacity to move beyond that success, engaging with greater complexity, challenge, and intellectual independence.
Executive functioning research also helps us better understand what may happen when a student struggles. Sometimes the challenge is the concept itself. Other times, a student may understand the material but need to develop the planning, organization, task initiation, or other executive functioning skills necessary to demonstrate that understanding independently.
Being able to recognize the difference helps teachers respond more effectively while maintaining high expectations for every student.
Building a Shared Language
One of our priorities this year is relatively simple: we want to get better at naming what we already see.
When teachers have a common language for executive functioning, they can communicate more precisely with one another about students and the strategies that help them succeed. Over time, that same language can strengthen conversations between teachers and parents.
Most importantly, students can begin to develop that language themselves.
Rather than simply thinking, “I’m bad at this,” a student can learn to recognize, “Getting started is hard for me,” or “I lose track when there are too many steps.” From there comes a much more productive question: “What strategy can I use?”
That growing self-awareness is an important part of becoming an independent learner. Our goal is not to remove challenges or solve problems for students. It is to give them the understanding, skills, and strategies to take on increasingly challenging work with confidence and greater independence.
Continuing the Conversation with Families
Our faculty began this work together before the start of the school year with executive functioning specialist Emily Bartz, who will return to STS in October to continue working with our teachers.
We are excited that Emily will also offer sessions for STS parents on October 6 and 7.
We strongly encourage families to attend. Emily has a remarkable ability to make the science behind executive functioning understandable, relevant, and practical. She also an exceptionally engaging speaker. Our faculty learned a tremendous amount from our first session with her, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
We will share additional details about the October 6 and 7 sessions soon.
This is the beginning of a longer conversation. As our teachers develop a more consistent language around executive functioning, we want to bring families into that language as well. Ultimately, the goal is for teachers, parents, and students to have a shared understanding of the skills behind learning and to help every student become more aware, capable, confident, and independent.