Assess and promote cognitive flexibility skills from fourth grade onward, when they become predictive of academic performance¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Based on their finding that flexibility uniquely predicted achievement only in Grades 4 and 6, the authors recommend that "cognitive flexibility skills may be particularly important for older students, and it hints at the possibility that fourth grade may be an important period for promoting flexibility skills". They state these results support practitioners and researchers in assessing EF skills, since flexibility "might be critical for assessing children's potential for academic performance", and provide a foundation for research examining opportunities for intervention.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Assessment should control for other EF components and fluid intelligence when interpreting flexibility's contribution

Constraints¶

• The study is correlational with a single time point, so causality inferences should be avoided; longitudinal replication is needed

Target Learners¶

• students in Grade 4 and older

Target Learning Goals¶

• literacy achievement
• mathematics achievement

Affordances¶

• Ef Three Core Components Model

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Sofia Magalhães, Luísa Carneiro, Teresa Limpo & Marisa Filipe (2020). Executive functions predict literacy and mathematics achievements: The unique contribution of cognitive flexibility in grades 2, 4, and 6. Child Neuropsychology, 26(7), 934-952. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2020.1740188