CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Proper development of executive functions (EFs) in children is associated with well-being, health, and positive social relationships, and it is a critical predictor of school performance. Family and school context shape EFs development. At school, educators play a critical role in modeling and supporting students´ self-regulation skills. In line with this position, the goal of this study was to design a school-based intervention aimed at: 1) helping teachers reflect on their students´ EFs and their educational practices used to support students´ self-regulation; and, 2) training educators in the design of teaching sequences aimed at promoting students? EFs. For Methodology, 735 educators from the province of Mendoza, Argentina, participated. The professional training was structured in three stages. In the first stage, a theoretical-practical training was offered on the implication of EFs in self-regulated learning, and teachers were asked to assess their students´ EFs, using an observational inventory. In the second stage, teachers self-assessed their educational practices using the Educational Practices Inventory (Korzeniowski, 2019a). In the third stage, teaching teams proposed educational sequences aimed at promoting EFs. For Results, it was noted that educators more frequently employed strategies to scaffold students´ cognitive flexibility, and they reported metacognition as a target EF to enhance in their students. Then, educators designed 85 teaching sequences in which they embedded areas of school curriculum -Math, Science, Art, Gym- with strategies to promoting students´ EFs. Teaching sequences were creative, innovative and used a variety of resources. In Conclusion, training teachers in using a continuous process of assessment, implementation, and evaluation of teaching sequences to strengthen students´ EFs is a valuable way to make classroom environments more supportive of students´ cognitive development.