Executive Functions in the Classroom

Executive functions refer to cognitive abilities involved in the control and coordination of information in the service of goal-directed actions. 1,2 As such, executive functions can be defined as a supervisory system that is important for planning, reasoning ability and the integration of thought and action. 3 At a more fine-grained level, however, executive functions, as studied in the cognitive development literature, has come to refer to specific interrelated information processing abilities that enable the resolution of conflicting information; namely, working memory, defined as the holding in mind and updating of information while performing some operation on it; inhibitory control, defined as the inhibition of prepotent or automatized responding when engaged in task completion; and mental flexibility, defined as the ability to shift attentional or cognitive set among distinct but related dimensions or aspects of a given task. 4,5,6,7