What are executive functions?
Executive functions are often described as the air traffic control centre of the brain. Residing in the prefrontal cortex, this set of skills is responsible for managing all areas of daily life, from work, to school, to home. We rely on these skills every day, and yet, we rarely talk about them. We decided to start the conversation. When explicitly taught, these ten executive functions proved to be the most relevant to enhance student learning:
Emotional Control
The ability to recognize and regulate emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, and direct behaviour.
Flexibility
The ability to revise a plan in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information, or mistakes; involves adaptability to changing conditions.
Goal Directed Persistence
The capacity to persevere and follow a task through to completion.
Metacognition
The ability to self-monitor and self-evaluate by asking; “How am I doing?” or “How did I do?”
Planning & Organization
The ability to create a roadmap, make decisions, and prioritize for task completion; the ability to design and maintain systems for tracking information and materials.
Response Inhibition
The capacity to stop, evaluate, and think before you act.
Shifting and Time Management
The ability to move appropriately from one situation to another; the capacity to estimate and to use time effectively.
Sustained Attention
The capacity to attend to a situation or task, in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or lack of interest.
Task Initiation
The ability to begin a task in a timely fashion.
Working Memory
The ability to hold information and past experience/learning in mind while performing complex tasks.
Adapted from Guare, Dawson, and Rief