Welcome to the third in a series of blogs on creating an authentic working environment. Last week’s blog was all about shifting our paradigms to support a classroom culture that overtly values learning, deep exploration, and continuous improvement. The final step in the 4-step process admonished guides to actively teach executive function and self-regulation throughout the time of transition (and maybe beyond). As promised, here are some thoughts on executive function.
There’s been a lot of press about executive function lately. EF is an umbrella term, referring to the type of brain activity that we use to manage our lives to get things done. This activity originates in the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for planning, self-regulation, and exchanging information across the brain. It enables us to use our experience and accumulated knowledge to consider things from multiple points of view, prioritize, and think flexibly. With those abilities, we plan and organize our time, attention, and behavior. As our plans unfold, EF helps us regulate and adapt our activity based on feedback from our surroundings. These planning and regulatory skills are critical to success in the classroom and in life, a statement borne out by a great deal of recent research.
Just now, as you read the description of various facets of EF, were you thinking of the specific children in your class who are deficit in one of more of these areas? In a typical Montessori classroom there are many opportunities for a student to plan and choose for herself; this shines a spotlight on any underdeveloped EF skills. We can see these deficits in a child who has difficulty managing her work, focusing on a task, or regulating her behavior to meet classroom norms, among other things. The good news is that the part of the brain responsible for these skills is the last to fully mature; while a great deal of executive function is established in the first plane of development, it continues to grow and season well into a young adulthood. This puts the nurturing of executive functioning skills squarely within our Circle of Influence. There are things that we can do, especially as Montessori educators, to better enable children to access planning and regulation functions. In more traditional classrooms, EF deficits can be masked to a certain extent by expecting all children to do the same thing at once and by restricting choice. More is the pity, as these children will not have near the opportunities that Montessori children have to develop those skills that are so crucial to their future success. Within the Montessori classroom, we can teach children some of the skills necessary for effective planning and regulation, if we use our “teachable moments” wisely.
Let’s take, for example, planning and regulating skills applied to work cycle activity. Choices around when to work and when to socialize, what work to do next, which work option to choose, and how to best accomplish the work requires a wide variety of executive function skills. What have you observed in your classroom? Is there a general atmosphere of strong executive function skills, evidenced by productive work (maybe with a few individual wanderers) or are executive function skills not being exercised as robustly as we would like? When we become aware that children are not performing as well as we think they should, whether it is a few individuals or the class as a whole, we can choose how to respond. We can become choose to frustrated as we interpret children’s actions as willful work avoidance, or we can mindfully look at what executive function skills might be missing.
In the case of chronic widespread over-socialization, we have to ask first if we have taken the time to build a solid foundation to support a working environment. Can you confidently say that the children know why they come to school each day? What do they value about learning? What do they value about this school, this classroom? When you established classroom norms at the beginning of the year, did they include anything about the joy and power of acquiring knowledge or was it a list of “don’ts” disguised as a classroom constitution? If these questions give you pause, then it may be worth setting aside some time for a guided discussion with the children.
If, on the other hand, you have had this kind of conversation with the children and are sure that they have some personal reason for valuing learning, then you can turn your attention to the lack of efficacy of days spent with excessive “down time”. When children authentically value completing work to their best ability on time, but are not doing so because of choices that they are making, the executive function skill that is most likely to be weak relates to willingness to defer gratification by exercising inhibitory control, the ability to resist an urge to do something other than what is most appropriate. When inhibitory control fails, as it does for all of us from time to time, other executive function skills enable us to examine our choices and learn from them. Perseverance (the subject of the November 30th blog entitled True Grit) is a natural outcome of having
A great way to introduce the topic of inhibitory control and deferred gratification to children is to show them a video of a classic experiment called the Marshmallow Experiment. Designed and implemented by Walter Mischel in 1960, in the original experiment, a child was brought to a room with not much more than a table, chair and bell. She is presented with a marshmallow (or other treat of choice) on a plate and asked not to eat it. She is told that the adult will leave the room for a time, but that she can call the adult back at any time by ringing the bell. When the adult returns, the child will be allowed to eat the marshmallow. However, if the child can wait for the adult to come back without ringing the bell to call him back, the child will receive a second marshmallow. The choice is simple: one now or two later. One of many delightful, more modern-day re-creations of this experiment that the children can watch and enjoy can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMWlVm8vbXU .
(Adults may really enjoy watching Charlie Rose interviewing Walter Mischel about his experiment and findings at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMWlVm8vbXU . He talks about the original experiment design, but also about following these children in a longitudinal study through adolescence and as adults. His studies, as do many more contemporary studies, find a strong correlation between children who are able to defer gratification and a number of positive long-term outcomes: greater social and cognitive competence in adolescence and higher SAT scores, lower rates of high BMI, less drug use, and better on the job performance. He also briefly discusses the neuroplasticity of the brain – in this case, our ability to learn to exercise better executive function.)
After children view the Marshmallow Test, discussing inhibitory control and deferred gratification becomes simpler. Begin by discussing what the children in the study seem to have felt, and what it took for some to be able wait for as long as 15 minutes (an absolute eternity for a 4 year-old) for the adult to return.
Next, build an analogy to choices made in the work cycle. Begin by asking the children what benefit there are to being able to take the time to do work to the best of one’s ability, capturing their comments on the white board or some other visible location. Ask what benefits arise from meeting due dates on assignments. If there are beloved practices in the class such as promoting inspired work (the subject of last week’s blog) or being allowed to volunteer for special tasks in the classroom or with a younger group of students, be sure that those aspects are included on the list. Also, be sure that “feeling successful / capable / smart” or “pride” and “confidence” appear somewhere on the list Hopefully, the list will be quite robust and can lead to a conversation of how sweet and deep this deferred gratification is (with reference to the marshmallows, of course)!
Next, ask what things get in the way of doing quality work and meeting due dates. Undoubtedly, they will name “socialization” as one causative factor, thinking that is “the right answer”. This shows good self-awareness, but dig deeper. What else? What about sitting with work out not making progress because you are stuck but are afraid or too proud to ask for help? Does that happen? What about taking forever to get started because you don’t know or can’t find what you need to do the work? Does that happen? What about avoiding a particular work because it is less-favored or because it seems so big? What about having to rush through a work just to get it done because you procrastinated and didn’t start early enough? What about spending a long time choosing what work to do next? This is a list of time- and energy-sinkers.
The first list is, in essence, the bonus marshmallow. It is what the child receives if he is able to exercise control over all the time- and energy- sinkers, the things that get in the way of doing quality work on time.
Lead a discussion about key time- and energy-sinkers, beginning with socialization. Pose questions: is it ok to socialize about non-work related things during work time? Is part of coming to school learning to socialize appropriately? To what degree is social time ok? The children may try to define it in terms of how many minutes of socialization is acceptable. If it is a reasonable number, that’s ok as a guideline, but really – who wants to have timers all over the room to remind you not to talk longer than ___ minutes? Dig deeper. Go for a definition that has more to do with whether the socialization breaks the participants concentration. Have you ever talked so long that returning to work feels like starting again – “Wait, what was I doing?” If so, that is definitely too long. What else is a signal that you may have been socializing too long? With paper-pencil work, is putting the pencil down and pushing the chair back a signal that you have broken from the work? If doing materials-based work, is sitting with the materials out but not moving them a signal? Is relocating away from the materials to sit by a friend a signal? How can you recognize when you have gone on too long without timing yourself?
Dive into a similar discussion of achieving balance with whichever other items on the inhibitors list, based on your observation of the class over the past weeks and months, are significant enough to merit taking the time to discuss.
Continue the conversation by saying that even people with really strong ability to resist things on the “sinkers” list, focusing on the great things that come as a result of a job well done, will sometimes slip up. That is part of being human! But another part of having good executive function is not giving up when that happens, sticking with something even after an initial failure or in the face of challenge or boredom.
Building better executive function is one of the goals of growing up. Summarize what the children captured in their lists, “The better your EF skills, the more your life is filled with pride, joy, (other adjectives from the children’s list), and the better you are able to adapt to change without undue stress. It just makes life better!”
We strengthen our EF skills the same way we strengthen other skills like reading, writing, and mathematics – through lessons and practice. This lesson isolated the skills of inhibitory control and deferred gratification. Now the children have an opportunity to practice awareness of time-sinkers and getting back on track after a slip-up. This process begins with the Reflection for Children that follows, which asks children to identify which “sinkers” are their biggest nemesis and which longer-term gratifications are most meaningful to them.
Scaffold this new awareness with support on making wise work choices. Each morning, meet briefly with the group to discuss work options for the day, helping children prioritize based on the rhythm of the day (doing longer works within longer uninterrupted timespans), the anticipated length of works, and due dates. Have each child label his individual highest priority items (no more than 3) with the letter A, with lower priority items and things that are just for the sheer joy if it marked with the letter B. Items that really don’t need to be finished soon (or ever) are labeled with a C.
Children then sequence their work honoring their unique biorhythms. Some children’s natural energy cycle is better suited by starting the day with something low-key and quick, with higher probability of success. Others do best by starting the day with something meaty. Mark Twain advocated starting with the most challenging or distasteful task, saying, “Eat a live frog every morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” (It is left to your discretion whether to share this quote with the children but if you do, you can also ask children to identify which work is the “frog” that they will consume at some point in the day.) Keeping their preferred sequence in mind, children number the works in the order that they anticipate they will choose them. The first item of the day may be something short and sweet from the B list, but the goal is to have the first 3-5 items of the day include everything on the A list. This then becomes a guideline, not a contract.
Like all new habits, it will take 4-6 weeks for these new practices and attitudes to become automatic. Until that time, regular discussion of the concept will scaffold the new behaviors. Initially, a quick end-of-day check-in causes children to self-assess. Did they finish or make significant progress on all of the A-priorities? What were today’s “sinkers”? What can they do to insure continued or better success tomorrow? Doing this as a group at dismissal time allows children the option to share their challenges and triumphs – an opportunity to encourage one another as they acquire new skills. After a week or two, these check-ins can be spaced out farther bit-by-bit.
Throughout this time, there will be individuals who slip up in a big way. When that happens, we need to engage the child 1-on-1 in a non-judgmental and unemotional analysis of what went wrong and what might prevent a reoccurrence. Our attitude is key – if the child feels as if he is “in trouble”, the blood in his brain preferentially goes to the reptilian brain stem, the “fight or flight” center. The child cannot reason through the situation if every bit of his being is telling him to “run away”. At the end of the conversation, express confidence in the plan and in the child’s ability to be successful next time, and rejoice in the fact that the child is learning how to be honest in self-reflection, a key component to continuous improvement on any front.
There will also be individuals for whom this discussion alone does not enable success. These children need accommodations just like children who struggle in the academic arena. When it becomes clear that a child needs more support, it is often true that the child best knows what will help. Here are a few ideas (in no particular order) that have worked for individuals in my classroom over the years. Some are very adult-intensive and some are entirely within the purview of the child. Each of these ideas is intended to be a temporary means of support. As the child experiences success, gently remove the support to see what he is now able to do. In consultation with the child, choose one of the following or one of his own design to try as an experiment, and see how it affects the child’s work.
- An adult chooses the first work of the day. In time, transition to choosing the first 2 works of the day, to be done in any order. Then 3 works…
- First work of the day is required to be 1-person work
- The child chooses a place that is uniquely his work space. He may additionally have a tri-fold poster board or headphones to minimize visual or auditory stimulation
- The child designs his own planner, which could be as simple as a to-do list. (Remember, planners are intended to serve the children, the children do not serve the planners!)
- The child does not use a planner at all, replacing that function with 2 folders – one for work options not yet started and another for work in progress. The expectation is that he has only one work out at a time, and whatever he chooses to work on (initially with the consultation of an adult) he finishes before starting another work.
- At each transition between works, the child tells the adult what work he has completed and what he is beginning. The adult supports the start of the new work. This can range from having a conversation about what is needed to be successful with that work up to and including sitting with the child until he has settled into the new work. (NOTE: if there is a good and reliable friend who can fill this role rather than an adult, this is preferred.)
- Identify one or more areas of the curriculum where the expectations of the child will be diminished. For example, if he is a child who can do 5 math problems successfully but after that his accuracy diminishes, he might be expected do half of the problems that other children do.
- The child arrives at school 15 minutes early to provide a time of quiet transition into the classroom. During this time, he plans his day, perhaps initially with the support of an adult, but soon independently.
(For more on Executive Functioning in Montessori, watch these YouTube videos, excerpts of an interview with Steven Hughes , clinical pediatric neuropsychologist. Part I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcNvTPX4Q08, and Part II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTwP-UL18sQ&t=38s .)
To read a brief story about Adele Diamond’s foray into brain research and what she discovered about inhibitory control, go to https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-galinsky/executive-function-skills_1_b_1613422.html
Reflection for Children:Today we talked about the benefits that come with a job well done in an appropriate timeframe. Which of the gratifications that we talked about most resonates with you? Can you think of one or more specific examples of times you finished a work and felt gratified? What difference would it make if you could experience that kind of gratification most days?
We also talked about time- and energy-sinkers. Each of us has different sinkers that we are most prone to. Which sinkers are your biggest nemeses? Can you think of specific strategies to better avoid them?
Reflection for Adults: To what degree have you viewed children’s failure to produce quality work on time as intentional work avoidance? How hs this discussion impacted your views? In what ways are you better able to see these mis-steps as the result of missing skills to be taught rather than as bad behavior or character flaws? In what ways do you anticipate that this will change the tone and content of the feedback that you give to children?
“Unsatisfaction is … acceptance combined with anticipation. It is
― Amy Simpson, Blessed Are the Unsatisfied: Finding Spiritual Freedom in an Imperfect Worldof desire without the demand that it be satisfied… a healthy hunger that is content to wait for the feast.” acknowledgement