{"id":62,"date":"2023-03-22T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/local.school-time\/?p=1"},"modified":"2023-04-18T10:16:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T08:16:48","slug":"executive-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/executive-functions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Building Blocks of Intelligance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/executive-functions\/\"><strong>Executive functioning<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(EF) skills are those capacities that enable a person to engage in successful independent purposeful behaviour. It is, therefore, a set of mental processes that play a crucial role in regulating and controlling behaviour and thinking, forming the cornerstones of human intelligence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">EF skills can be conceptualised as falling into two broad domains: Thinking skills (mental control) and doing skills (self-regulation)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Thinking Skills<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">: consist of the mental processes used to analyse information and solve problems encompassing:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Working Memory: the capacity to temporarily hold and manipulate information in mind, a vital skill for problem-solving and reasoning<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Cognitive\/Mind Flexibility: the ability to adjust to changing conditions and switch between tasks is essential for adapting to new information and situations.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Metacognition and Reflection: the ability to reflect on one\u2019s experiences and thinking processes and adjust them to improve learning and problem-solving.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Critical thinking: the ability to evaluate information to form a judgement<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Creativity: the ability to generate novel and innovative ideas and solutions<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Reasoning: the ability to use reason to draw conclusions based on evidence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Doing Skills:<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0involve the self-regulation and inhibitory control skills needed to complete goal-oriented intellectual tasks and encompass:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Attention Control: The ability to focus, filter distractions, maintain focus, think before acting, regulate emotions, and suppress impulsive responses.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Behavioural Control: the ability to reflect on behaviour, thoughts and emotions and make adjustments as necessary.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Task Initiation, Planning and Organising: the goal-directed planning and action needed to complete tasks without procrastination.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Monitoring and Evaluation: The ability to monitor and evaluate one\u2019s performance, including detecting errors and making adjustments as needed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Goal-Directed Persistence\/Determination: The ability to work towards a goal despite distractions, frustration, or temptations to give up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Executive functioning skills help people to engage in goal-directed behaviour, solve problems, make decisions, organise, plan, prioritise, attend, initiate tasks and inhibit responses, persevere on tasks, regulate emotions, shift thought frameworks, and conceptualise\/manage time. All skills that play a critical role in academic and life success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It is important to note that these executive functions develop and mature throughout childhood and into early adulthood. Executive functioning skills are teachable skills that can be developed and improved through practice and training.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">How do we develop and train Executive Functioning skills?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">At Libert\u00e9, the development and improvement of EF skills are supported through instructional practices and activities that challenge and engage the learner, such as problem-solving tasks, critical thinking exercises, and group projects and provide learners with the freedom to take control of their learning and making the most of their educational experiences. This ultimately enables them to focus on learning and knowledge acquisition, leading to higher performance in assessments, tests and assignments.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Executive functioning (EF) skills are those capacities that enable a person to engage in successful independent purposeful behaviour. It is, therefore, a set of mental processes that play a crucial role in regulating and controlling behaviour and thinking, forming the cornerstones of human intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[18,19,23],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cognitive-science","tag-cognitive-science","tag-education","tag-executive-functions","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberteschool.co.za\/primary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}