The SAGE Encyclopedia of Classroom

Management
Executive Function and Behavior Problems

Contributors: Stephen W. Smith & Michelle M. Cumming

Edited by: W. George Scarlett
Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Classroom Management
Chapter Title: "Executive Function and Behavior Problems"
Pub. Date: 2014
Access Date: September 5, 2018
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks
Print ISBN: 9781452241395
Online ISBN: 9781483346243
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483346243.n129
Print pages: 319-321
©2014 SAGE Publications Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of
the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
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Executive function (EF) refers to the higher-order cognitive processes involved in the
planning, initiation, and self-regulation (SR) of goal-directed behavior. EF provides the
building blocks necessary for student learning, social interaction, and modulating behavior.
Recent findings illustrate a link between deficits in executive functioning and deficits in self-
regulatory skills, deficits associated with behavior problems in school-age children and youth.
The intent of this entry is to describe the theoretical understanding of this connection and
provide practical classroom management strategies that foster student executive functioning
and related SR and, in turn, reduce the incidence of problem behavior in classrooms.

EF and Its Effects on Behavior

EF can be thought of as the brain’s railroad operator in a system of complex tracks, providing
the connections between knowing and doing. As such, EF provides the building blocks of
healthy student development. Taking place in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, EF affects an
individual’s ability to pay attention, control impulses, remember and use information, and have
flexibility in thoughts and actions through the dimensions of working memory, inhibitory
control, and cognitive flexibility. Thus, EF serves as the foundation for abilities in cognition,
social interactions, and behavior modulation.

Proficiency in executive functioning allows people to set goals, formulate plans, follow through
with actions, and, as a result, engage in SR. When individuals self-regulate by managing their
emotions, motivation, and behaviors, they are, in fact, tapping underlying EF skills by
delaying gratification, thinking before acting, inhibiting automatic responses, and using
effortful and sustained attention. Therefore, EF and associated SR serve as the foundation for
academic achievement, social competencies, and behavior management skills.

As more is known about EF, it appears that people are not born with functioning EF. Rather,
EF develops throughout childhood and adolescence through individuals’ interactions with
their environment and repeated use.

EF, Self-Regulation, and School Success

School success is associated largely with strength in EF and related self-regulatory skills.
Students with strong inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility are better
able to self-regulate by controlling their impulses and emotions, being attentive and
organized, following directions, and solving problems. In fact, researchers have found that
students with strong EF and SR abilities tend to perform better academically than their peers
with weaker skills and demonstrate heightened ability in social interactions and positive
behavior—skills that have been linked with school achievement.

Link Between EF and Behavior Problems

Children and youth with compromised EF and associated compromised SR skills may display
behaviors that can be highly disruptive and challenging to manage in the classroom.
Researchers have found that severe deficits in EF and underdeveloped self-regulatory
abilities have been associated with childhood disorders, including anxiety, depression,
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and aggression.

In the classroom, deficits in impulse control and cognitive flexibility have been linked with

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aggressive and socially oppositional behavior in students. Deficits in attention and working
memory have been associated with students who have difficulty following directions, learning
new skills, and accurately reading social cues. In essence, students who display the inability
to self-regulate their cognition, emotions, and behavior may, in fact, be drawing from a limited
EF foundation. Therefore, those students with underdeveloped EF are at a disadvantage
because of potential challenges in meeting academic expectations, navigating social
situations, and modulating emotions, each of which can lead to frustration and externalizing
behaviors.

Impact of Stress on EF

Environment and social relationships play an important role in the development of EF.
Researchers have found that life experiences and toxic levels of stress adversely impact its
development. Additionally, stress resulting from negative environments and adversarial social
interactions has been cited as a risk factor for the development of problem behaviors. In
school settings, sources of stress may include adverse teacher–student relationships and
ineffective classroom management that results in chaotic environments.

When faced with stressful life situations, students with EF deficits tend to demonstrate greater
difficulty regulating stress, resulting in both internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Thus,
students with behavior problems who are in highly stressful social environments may be at
continued risk for failure due to persistent weakening of their EF skills. Fortunately, healthy
teacher–student relationships, orderly and effective management of the classroom, and
students’ gradual acquisition of self-regulatory skills through teacher guidance can play a
positive role in EF development.

Managing Problem Behaviors by Fostering EF and SR

Teachers can play an influential role in fostering student EF and associated SR development
by creating positive classroom environments through healthy teacher–student relationships,
effective classroom management, and explicit teaching and modeling of self-regulatory skills.
By teaching students how to control their impulses, remember and use information, and plan
and revise actions in the areas of goal setting, emotion regulation, and social problem solving,
teachers are not only honing students’ important SR skills; they are also tapping the core EF
skills of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility.

Positive Classroom Environment

Adverse student relationships and chaotic and mismanaged classrooms may serve as a
source of toxic stress for many students, which can potentially have a negative impact on EF
development and associated SR. It is essential, then, that teachers not only build healthy
relationships with and between students but also create nurturing classroom environments
through the use of clear rules and expectations.

Healthy Relationships

The quality of teacher–student relationships is widely recognized as an important variable in

preventing behavior problems and reducing stress. A low degree of conflict, an appropriate
degree of dependency, and a high degree of closeness can increase positive student
relationships with teachers. Therefore, investing in healthy teacher–student relationships is a

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vital intervention to address behavior in the classroom. In fact, if teachers develop a

meaningful and positive interpersonal bond with students who have behavior problems, it is
likely to increase the likelihood that pedagogical efforts and other behavioral interventions will
be effective.

Classroom Management

Creating a nurturing classroom environment through clear expectations and rules is a pivotal
part of reducing student stress, fostering EF development, and addressing problem
behaviors. An effective management approach can include establishing positively stated rules
that clearly define the social contract for how students and teachers will conduct themselves.
The social contract should have a clear system for acknowledging students for following the
rules and consequences for rule violation. Importantly, increasing choice making and praising
student behavior more than reprimanding are key. In essence, focusing on teacher–student
relationships and positive classroom environments is essential in reducing stress and
fostering student EF and associated SR development, which will equip students with the tools
to manage their own behavior.

Self-Regulatory Skill Development

Promoting the self-regulatory skills of goal setting, emotion regulation, and problem solving
can be effective strategies to address student problematic behavior. When students engage in
these activities, they recruit underlying EF, which in turn helps them to self-regulate behavior
and, potentially, increase their overall social and emotional learning. While it is essential that
teachers model and instruct students in these areas, it is also important that they scaffold skill
development toward independence.

Goal Setting

Students who exhibit problematic behavior tend to lack proficiency in setting goals that can
guide successful learning. Establishing goals based on values is a fundamental component
of goal setting, along with identifying resources and barriers that help or hinder goal
attainment, creating plans to accomplish goals, and using strategies to stay committed to
goals. For instance, students may value academic achievement and their goal is to make
good grades, yet a barrier may be that they forget constantly to write down their homework
assignments. A plan to accomplish their goal would be to meet with their teacher for 10
minutes at the end of the day to ensure that they have written down their homework
assignments correctly. If the teacher cannot meet immediately after school, the student may
need to modify the plan by finding an alternative time. When teaching goal-setting skills, it is
essential that students learn through the use of real-life scenarios and have opportunities to
practice skills through role plays.

Emotion Regulation

Students with behavior problems tend to have difficulty controlling strong emotions and have
a limited capacity to accurately recognize what they are feeling. Teachers can teach students
how to identify their feelings, describe their emotions, determine their emotional triggers, and
understand emotion intensity. For instance, by helping students understand that emotions
have different levels of intensity (e.g., frustration, anger, rage), teachers are better able to
identify and regulate before students’ emotions build to uncontrollable levels.

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Once students are equipped with these foundational skills, teachers can instruct them in
emotional control strategies. Typical techniques include situation, thinking, focusing, and
action strategies. With situation and thinking strategies, students discover how to select or
modify their current situation or change their interpretation of a situation. For example, a
student who is being teased by a peer in class might modify the situation by changing seats,
or if he is upset about not making the soccer team, he could see it not as negative but an
indication that he must work harder. With focusing strategies, students learn how to use
distraction or concentration to reduce the intensity of an emotion. For example, while feeling
nervous about presenting in front of the class, students may distract themselves from their
emotions by asking a friend about a party. Students can also learn action strategies, where
they use mindfulness and relaxation skills to help them avoid responding to intense emotions
in a problematic way. As with goal setting, it is important for students to practice their new
skills through role plays and activities.

Problem Solving

Having a limited repertoire to solve problems is typical of students with problem behaviors.
Teachers can help students learn problem-solving steps by teaching them how to (1)
determine if a problem exists, (2) name the problem and goal, (3) come up with possible
solutions, (4) pick the best solution to solve the problem, and (5) develop an action plan and
evaluate how well it worked. Many times, students with problem behaviors have difficulty
coming up with different ways to solve a problem and may automatically resort to aggression.

Teachers can teach students strategies to generate multiple solutions through brainstorming,
thinking of what has worked in the past, and what someone else would do in the same
situation. For instance, a student may be upset with a friend who is spreading rumors about
her. As a way to come up with solutions to solve her problem, she may think about how she
handled a similar solution in the past that worked.

Once students have generated solutions, they discover how to evaluate them and choose the
best one to reach their goal and use it to solve their problem. Lastly, students determine how
well their plan worked and think about their next steps. For students to be able to become
expert problem-solvers, they will need to hone their skills through scenarios, role plays, and
practice outside the school setting.

When students engage in goal setting, emotion regulation, and problem solving, they are
learning how to control their impulses, remember and use information, and have flexibility in
their thoughts and actions by accessing the EF dimensions of working memory, inhibitory
control, and cognitive flexibility. When students have strong EF skills, they are better able to
modulate their behavior and improve their potential to be successful in school.

Conclusion

Executive functioning provides the foundation for all learning, social interactions, and behavior
modulation. Therefore, student success in schools and later life is based upon strength in EF
skills, while deficits are associated with behavior problems and negative long-term outcomes.
Importantly, EF skill development is adversely affected by toxic stress associated with
unhealthy social relationships and negative environments. Executive functioning can be
fostered through nurturing environments, healthy adult–child relationships, and explicit
teaching and scaffolding of self-regulatory skills that tap underlying EF skills. Teachers can

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play an active part in helping their students modulate their behavior and be successful in
school by cultivating executive functioning in their classrooms. By incorporating EF
development into their curriculum, teachers are not only addressing behavior problems but
also improving students’ short-term and long-term success.

Stephen W. Smith and Michelle M. Cumming

See alsoEmotion Regulation; Locus of Control; Self-Management; Self-Regulated Learning;

Self-Regulation to Solve Problems; Social and Emotional Learning

Further Readings

Baumeister, R. F., Schmeichel, B. J., & Vohs, K. D. (2007). Self-regulation and the executive
function: The self as controlling agent. In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social
psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 197–217). New York, NY: Guilford.

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2011). Building the brain’s “air traffic
control” system: How early experiences shape the development of executive function: Working
Paper No. 11. Retrieved from http://www.developingchild.harvard.edu

Dawson, P., & Guare, R. (2010). Executive skills in children and adolescents: A practical guide
to assessment and intervention. New York, NY: Guilford.

Feifer, S. G., & Rattan, G. (2007). Executive functioning skills in male students with social-
emotional disorders. International Journal of Neuroscience, 117, 1565–1577.

Kauffman, C. (2010). Executive function in the classroom. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.

Shanker, S. (2012). Calm, alert, and learning: Classroom strategies for self-regulation.
Toronto, Canada: Pearson.

Zelazo, P. D., Carlson, S. M., & Kesek, A. (2008). Development of executive function in
childhood. In C. A. Nelson & M. Luciana (Eds.), Handbook of developmental cognitive
neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 553–574). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Stephen W. SmithMichelle M. Cumming

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483346243.n129
10.4135/9781483346243.n129

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