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The Power of the Brain:
Executive Functioning
1 credit hour Iowa license renewal course (What's this?)
Register anytime. Take 2 full months to complete!
This 1-credit hour class provides an overview of executive functioning skills and their relationship to brain processes. It is designed to help students understand the cognitive functions that are essential for goal-directed behavior, problem-solving, and effective management of daily tasks. The course covers the foundational components of executive functioning, the neural mechanisms that underpin these skills, and their significance in various aspects of life.
Content Overview:
Introduction to Executive Functioning Skills: The class begins with a comprehensive introduction to executive functioning, defining it as a set of mental skills that include working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control. These functions are critical for planning, focusing attention, remembering instructions, and managing multiple tasks efficiently.
Core Components of Executive Functioning include:
Working Memory: Understanding the ability to hold and manipulate information in real-time, crucial for tasks that involve following instructions, learning new information, and making decisions.
Cognitive Flexibility: Examining the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances, think creatively, switch perspectives, and manage multiple concepts simultaneously.
Inhibitory Control: Discussing self-regulation skills, including the ability to resist impulses, avoid distractions, and stay focused on goals.
Brain Structures and Neural Networks Involved in Executive Functioning: A detailed analysis of the brain regions responsible for executive functioning, with a focus on the prefrontal cortex and its subregions:
Impact of Executive Functioning on Daily Life and Learning:
A focus on the practical implications of executive functioning in academic settings, the workplace, and personal life. Students will learn about how strong executive functioning skills contribute to better time management, organization, emotional regulation, and goal achievement, while deficits can lead to challenges such as poor academic performance, difficulties in social interactions, and impaired decision-making.
Strategies for Enhancing Executive Functioning: A theoretical overview of evidence-based strategies and interventions to strengthen executive functioning skills. This includes cognitive training exercises, mindfulness practices, behavioral modifications, and environmental adjustments that can help optimize brain function and improve cognitive performance.
Content Overview:
Introduction to Executive Functioning Skills: The class begins with a comprehensive introduction to executive functioning, defining it as a set of mental skills that include working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control. These functions are critical for planning, focusing attention, remembering instructions, and managing multiple tasks efficiently.
Core Components of Executive Functioning include:
Working Memory: Understanding the ability to hold and manipulate information in real-time, crucial for tasks that involve following instructions, learning new information, and making decisions.
Cognitive Flexibility: Examining the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances, think creatively, switch perspectives, and manage multiple concepts simultaneously.
Inhibitory Control: Discussing self-regulation skills, including the ability to resist impulses, avoid distractions, and stay focused on goals.
Brain Structures and Neural Networks Involved in Executive Functioning: A detailed analysis of the brain regions responsible for executive functioning, with a focus on the prefrontal cortex and its subregions:
Impact of Executive Functioning on Daily Life and Learning:
A focus on the practical implications of executive functioning in academic settings, the workplace, and personal life. Students will learn about how strong executive functioning skills contribute to better time management, organization, emotional regulation, and goal achievement, while deficits can lead to challenges such as poor academic performance, difficulties in social interactions, and impaired decision-making.
Strategies for Enhancing Executive Functioning: A theoretical overview of evidence-based strategies and interventions to strengthen executive functioning skills. This includes cognitive training exercises, mindfulness practices, behavioral modifications, and environmental adjustments that can help optimize brain function and improve cognitive performance.
Organization
This is a 1 credit hour Iowa license renewal course. Course goals will be met through instructor designed activities, supplemental readings, videos, reflections, and instructor feedback.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will...
- Articulate a clear definition of executive functioning and identify its three main components: working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control and understand the Brain’s Role in Executive Functioning:
- Know which brain regions are involved in executive functions, particularly the prefrontal cortex, and how these regions support cognitive processes such as planning, decision-making, and self-control.
- Describe how executive functioning skills impact various aspects of life, including academic performance, work productivity, social interactions, and overall well-being.
- Identify Common Signs of Executive Dysfunction. Participants will learn to recognize behaviors and challenges associated with executive dysfunction, such as difficulties with organization, time management, impulse control, and adapting to change.
- Participants will know how to introduce practical, evidence-based strategies to improve executive functioning skills.
How Does This Course Support The Iowa Core?
This class is designed to help teachers enhance their instructional strategies and supports the Iowa Core by equipping educators with knowledge and practical approaches to foster key cognitive, social, and emotional skills in their students. The Iowa Core outlines clear expectations for what students should know and be able to do, and executive functioning skills are foundational to meeting these goals across all subject areas. By helping teachers understand and teach executive functioning, this class directly aligns with the Iowa Core’s vision of developing students' abilities to think critically, solve problems, and engage as lifelong learners.
Executive Functioning Skills for Teachers Supports the Iowa Core:
Enhances Instructional Strategies Across Content Areas:
Teachers who understand executive functioning can better design lessons that support literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies standards within the Iowa Core. For example, they can incorporate strategies that improve students' working memory for reading comprehension, cognitive flexibility for mathematical problem-solving, and inhibitory control for scientific reasoning. This alignment ensures students are better equipped to meet the Iowa Core's rigorous academic expectations.
Improves Differentiation and Support for Diverse Learners:
The Iowa Core emphasizes equitable instruction that meets the needs of all students, including those with learning differences or challenges. This class provides teachers with tools to identify and address varying levels of executive skill development in their students, such as planning, organizing, and self-monitoring. This helps teachers create more effective differentiated instruction plans that accommodate all learning styles and needs.
The Iowa Core includes 21st-century skills like civic literacy, technology literacy, and employability skills. Executive functioning is critical for these areas, as skills like goal-setting, decision-making, and self-regulation are needed for success in modern, dynamic environments. Teachers equipped with strategies to foster these skills in students can help them become more adaptable, resilient, and prepared for future challenges.
Fosters Social-Emotional Learning (SEL):
The Iowa Core integrates social-emotional learning to build competencies like self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Teachers who understand executive functioning skills can better teach and reinforce these SEL competencies by embedding practices that encourage impulse control, emotional regulation, and reflective thinking into their daily routines and lesson plans.
Course Topics that Support Instructional Practices and Strategies:
- What is Executive Functioning (EF)?
- ADHD & EF
- EF & other Disorders
- Metacognition
- EF Assistance
- EF Supports & Strategies
Grading
This is a 1 credit hour Iowa license renewal only course. Grading is Pass/Fail. Students are required to participate in and complete all assignments and/or activities. Participants must earn scores of 80% or better to receive Pass score and receive credit.
Required Text:
No textbook required. All materials provided on line.