What Executive Function Is
Executive function is the set of mental skills students use to manage themselves: holding directions in mind, stopping an impulse, switching gears, and planning their work. This module defines those skills in plain language and shows where they hide inside ordinary classroom tasks.
The module has two parts. Each part has a short reading followed by practice activities built around real classroom moments. Work through the sections in order; your progress is saved as you go. Plan on about 30 minutes, including the video.
- Define executive function in plain language
- Name the core skills: working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility
- Connect the core skills to planning, starting and finishing work
- Explain why executive function keeps developing into adulthood
- Spot executive function demands in everyday classroom tasks
Watch first: What Executive Function Is (7 min)
Watch the overview, then work through the readings and activities below.
Three Core Skills
Researchers generally agree on three core executive function skills. Working memory is holding information in mind while you use it, like remembering the second and third steps of a direction while doing the first. Inhibition is stopping an automatic response, like waiting to be called on instead of blurting. Cognitive flexibility is shifting between tasks, rules or ideas, like moving from math to reading or handling a surprise fire drill.
Higher-level skills such as planning, getting started, managing time and checking your own work are built on top of these three. That is why a student who struggles with working memory may also look disorganized, and a student who struggles with flexibility may have a hard time with transitions.
Read Part 1 of the Harvard Center on the Developing Child activities guide. Notice how the guide describes each core skill and how the skills grow with age.
Open the Harvard activities guide →- How each of the three core skills is defined
- How the skills show up at different ages
- Why practice and support help the skills grow
- How stress affects executive function
What Teachers Should Know About the Core Skills
Keep these ideas in mind as you watch students work.
Executive function is not intelligence.
A very bright student can still struggle to start, stay organized or switch gears. Strong test scores and weak executive function often show up together.
Working memory is easy to overload.
Most students can hold only a few new pieces of information at once. Long spoken directions quickly go past that limit.
Flexibility shows up at transitions.
Changes in plans, new rules and moving between activities all call on cognitive flexibility.
Higher-level skills depend on the core.
Planning, starting, pacing and self-checking all draw on working memory, inhibition and flexibility at the same time.
You tell your third graders, “Put your reading books away, take out your math journals, and turn to page 42.” Most students get moving. Eli puts his book away, then looks around the room.
When you check in, he says, “I forgot what we’re doing.” He is quick with math facts and loves to answer questions out loud.
The next day you post the three steps on the board with numbers.
What should you watch for?
Priya calls out answers before you finish asking the question, even though she knows the class rule is to raise a hand. Which core skill is most involved?
Reveal the Best Answer
For each statement, choose Accurate or Inaccurate, then check your answers.
1. Working memory means holding information in mind while using it.
2. A student with strong grades can’t have executive function challenges.
3. Handling a surprise schedule change calls on cognitive flexibility.
4. Planning and time management are separate from the core skills.
Can’t, Not Won’t
Executive function keeps developing from early childhood into the mid-twenties. That means the demands of middle and high school (several teachers, long-term projects, more independence) often grow faster than students’ skills. Stress, poor sleep and anxiety can also lower how well students use the skills they have on a given day.
When a student doesn’t start, forgets materials or melts down at a change, it is easy to read the behavior as a choice. Often it reflects a skill that isn’t there yet. Consequences alone rarely build a missing skill. A better question is: what skill is missing here, and how can I support it?
Read Adele Diamond’s review of executive functions, focusing on the introduction and the section on how the skills can be improved. You don’t need every detail; look for the big ideas.
Open Diamond (2013) →- How the core skills are defined in research
- Why executive function predicts school success
- How stress and sleep affect the skills
- Why practice with support helps the skills grow
Hidden Demands in Ordinary Tasks
Many classroom tasks ask for several executive function skills at once.
“Write a paragraph about the story.”
Students have to plan, get started, hold ideas in mind while writing and check their work.
“Clean up and line up.”
Students have to stop what they are doing, shift to a new task and follow steps in order.
“Study for Friday’s test.”
Students have to plan over several days, manage time and choose a strategy.
Emotions take up working memory.
Frustration and worry make it harder to think clearly and switch strategies.
Jordan, an eighth grader, knows the science content well. He does great in class discussions and on quizzes. But he has turned in only two of six lab reports this quarter.
When you ask, he says, “I meant to do them. I just never got around to it.” His folder is stuffed with loose papers from several classes.
You give Jordan a lab report checklist and check in with him at the start of work time.
After two weeks he has turned in both reports. What comes next?
Which statement best reflects a “can’t, not won’t” approach?
Reveal the Best Answer
For each statement, choose Accurate or Inaccurate, then check your answers.
1. Executive function is fully developed by the end of elementary school.
2. Stress and poor sleep can lower executive function on a given day.
3. Consequences alone usually build missing executive function skills.
4. Studying for a test over several days calls on planning and time management.
What to carry into Module 2
- Executive function is how we manage ourselves to reach goals.
- The core skills are working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility.
- The skills develop into the mid-twenties and vary day to day.
- Ask what skill is missing, then support it.
References
- Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2014). Enhancing and practicing executive function skills with children from infancy to adolescence. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/handouts-tools/activities-guide-enhancing-and-practicing-executive-function-skills/
- Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
- IRIS Center. (n.d.). Executive functions (Part 1): Understanding why some students struggle. Vanderbilt University. https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/ef1/