Introduction

Executive function is a collection of skills necessary for intentional and goal-directed behavior. These skills are developed over time and are typically nurtured in children and adolescents, and are thought to peak around ages 20-29. But these skills can be learned and supported at older ages, as well.

Individuals who experience frequent stressors in childhood, as well as who have certain behavioral disorders, often have inhibited executive function. If you are teaching in 2024, you almost certainly have a significant number of students with some variety and severity of executive dysfunction. And there's a decent chance you have executive dysfunction, too!

Executive dysfunction leads to all kinds of challenges in learning environments, especially project-based learning, where students must engage in sustained inquiry in dynamic environments. Procrastination, inability to organize information, challenges with breaking down problems into steps, resistance to doing "boring" work - all of these are classic challenges that students (and faculty!) struggle with.

Executive function skills are closely interrelated, and there are a lot of resources for supporting executive function that break down into different (related) categories. This guide uses the high-level breakdown proposed by the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, which points to three (overlapping) areas:

• Working Memory: ability to retain information in the short term

• Flexibility: ability to adapt to new situations, work with different rules in different settings, and dynamically reprioritize activities under changing conditions

• Self-Control: ability to sustain focus, resist impulsive behavior, and set and keep priorities

This section offers some suggestions for supporting executive function in PBL contexts.