The Relevance of Executive Functions in Academic Production in Middle School

Abstract

The present study investigated the role that executive function plays on academic production in middle school from a prototype perspective. It was hypothesized that middle school teachers' prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically successful would differ significantly from these same middle school teachers' prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically unsuccessful. The study used archival data consisting of items from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), a questionnaire that was completed by middle school teachers during a professional in-service workshop at four large urban middle schools. The concept of academic competence was viewed as a category, structured by the similarities of successful middle school students to one another in discrete behavioral manifestations of executive functions and organized around a prototype that represents the central tendency of all the exemplars in the category of successful students, as operationally defined by the BRIEF items. A second prototype was structured in a similar manner for the unsuccessful student category. To examine differences between these two prototypical categories, t tests were conducted using T scores from the eight BRIEF domains. It was postulated that there would be a significant difference between the successful learner prototype and the unsuccessful learner prototype. It was expected that the successful student prototype would possess fewer executive function impairments than the unsuccessful student prototype. Statistically significant findings were obtained, suggesting that teachers' perceptions of prototypical successful students differed from these same teachers' perceptions of prototypical unsuccessful students in their behavioral manifestations of executive function capacities in all eight domains of the BRIEF. Teachers' ratings most consistently produced the expected pattern of T score results for the Inhibit, Initiate, Plan/Organize, Monitor, and Working Memory scales. Teachers were least likely to see large differences between successful and unsuccessful students in behaviors that reflected the executive function capacities of Shift, Emotional Control, and Organization of Materials. The results of the study supported the hypothesis that successful students exhibit very few executive function difficulties, while unsuccessful students exhibit executive function difficulties in the clinically significant range. The present study investigated the role that executive function plays on academic production in middle school from a prototype perspective. It was hypothesized that middle school teachers' prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically successful would differ significantly from these same middle school teachers' prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically unsuccessful. The study used archival data consisting of items from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), a questionnaire that was completed by middle school teachers during a professional in-service workshop at four large urban middle schools. The concept of academic competence was viewed as a category, structured by the similarities of successful middle school students to one another in discrete behavioral manifestations of executive functions and organized around a prototype that represents the central tendency of all the exemplars in the category of successful students, as operationally defined by the BRIEF items. A second prototype was structured in a similar manner for the unsuccessful student category. To examine differences between these two prototypical categories, t tests were conducted using T scores from the eight BRIEF domains. It was postulated that there would be a significant difference between the successful learner prototype and the unsuccessful learner prototype. It was expected that the successful student prototype would possess fewer executive function impairments than the unsuccessful student prototype. Statistically significant findings were obtained, suggesting that teachers' perceptions of prototypical successful students differed from these same teachers' perceptions of prototypical unsuccessful students in their behavioral manifestations of executive function capacities in all eight domains of the BRIEF. Teachers' ratings most consistently produced the expected pattern of T score results for the Inhibit, Initiate, Plan/Organize, Monitor, and Working Memory scales. Teachers were least likely to see large differences between successful and unsuccessful students in behaviors that reflected the executive function capacities of Shift, Emotional Control, and Organization of Materials. The results of the study supported the hypothesis that successful students exhibit very few executive function difficulties, while unsuccessful students exhibit executive function difficulties in the clinically significant range.

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