Guard against lowered educator expectations producing a vicious circle of reduced EF challenge for disadvantaged pupils¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 3 studies (2 review, 1 causal), q1–q3 · 1 of 3 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Drawing on the EF + Math program's synthesis, the review warns that lower expectations for young pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds may translate into less EF challenge, initiating "a vicious circle of lower opportunities for challenge, rather than a virtuous one". It further notes that reduced quantitative expectations may be compounded by qualitatively different teaching that replaces productive struggle and embracing challenge with simpler drill and practice. Educators need knowledge of EFs, mathematics, their interaction, and individual learners.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Educator knowledge of EFs, mathematics, and their interaction, plus awareness of their own expectations of individual learners

Constraints¶

• The review presents this as a hypothesised mechanism reported by the EF + Math program (n.d.), not a directly tested effect in this article

Target Learners¶

• Young pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in preschool and early primary settings

Target Learning Goals¶

• Equitable opportunities for EF challenge within early mathematics learning

Claims¶

• Reducing EF demands benefits struggling learners, whereas calibrated EF challenge is hypothesised to benefit beginning learners [+W]
• Effects were larger in intervention schools with a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students or a lower percentage of White students [+W]
• Children with the weakest executive functions benefit the most from EF interventions, so early training may reduce social disparities in EFs [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Embed adaptive, intentional EF challenge within age-appropriate mathematics activities rather than reducing EF demands

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Scerif, G., Blakey, E., Gattas, S., Hawes, Z., Howard, S., Merkley, R., O'Connor, R., & Simms, V. (2023). Making the Executive 'Function' for the Foundations of Mathematics: the Need for Explicit Theories of Change for Early Interventions. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09824-3