This trip has been made more possible through some financial support from the Scottish Division of Educational Psychology (SDEP). The following is an excerpt of the proposal submitted earlier this year.

 

What is Self Regulation? 

Self regulation is the behavioral outcome of an individual’s strategic thoughts and plans and is mainly managed by the Executive Functions. Executive Functions (EFs: can also be referred to as executive control or cognitive control) refer to a series of brain processes associated with activity in the prefrontal cortex. EFs are employed during times of concentration, with the result that behaviour is self-regulated and deliberate. EFs are different to brain process which we use when behaviour is habituated, based on instinct or intuition (cited in Diamond, 2014). The development of EFs is usually part of normal child development, however, some pupils continue to use the latter brain processes where EF use would be most beneficial. This can be a result of many factors, including disrupted early childhood experiences, inconsistent parenting, different brain patterns. For most people, applying EFs is effortful and for these children, applying EFs can be quite unknown.   

There is general agreement that there are three core EFs (e.g., Lehto et al. 2003, Miyake et al. 2000, as cited in Diamond, 2014): 

  1. Inhibition [inhibitory control, including self-control (behavioural inhibition) and interference control (selective attention and cognitive inhibition)],  
  2. Working memory (WM) 
  3. Cognitive flexibility (also called set shifting, mental flexibility, or mental set shifting, closely linked to creativity).  

From these, higher-order EFs are built such as reasoning, problem solving, and planning (Collins & Koechlin 2012, Lunt et al. 2012) and self regulated behaviour. EFs have been found to be more important for school readiness than IQ or early numeracy or literacy. They have also been shown to predict both numeracy and literacy competence throughout a child’s time at school (cited in Diamond, 2014). 

EF and Self Regulation in Scotland: A national interest

There has been an increased focus on the importance of developing EFs and self regulation strategies following the publication of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation paper ‘Closing the Attainment Gap in Scotland’ (2014), where supporting children’s self regulation strategies was outlined as an effective pedagogy to close the attainment gap. The paper called for Scotland to establish and promote ways to share robust research on what works to close the attainment gap and for schools to adopt evidence-based approaches.

In addition, the Teaching and Learning Toolkit from the Sutton trust has shown that supporting children and young people’s self-regulation can result in 8 months of learning progress and that there is security in research demonstrating the effectiveness of such an intervention (https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/).

Personal interest and work so far

My interest in EF development and self regulation has developed since 2012 when I worked alongside an EP colleague to lead a year long practitioner enquiry project for staff working with groups of vulnerable children. Since then I have been supporting school practitioners to develop their practice through focused pieces of casework and through two further practitioner enquiry projects. In some cases, parents have also had the opportunity to learn about practice and approaches. Evaluation data has consistently indicated improvement in pupils’ ability to plan for and undertake independent work as well as improvement in staff ability to self-regulate their own responses to pupils.

These projects have supported practitioners to help children/young people understand and apply a Goal, Plan, Do, Review framework through consistent use of language scripts and sound bites (eg. big deal/little deal, choice/no choice, hard/easy).  Ideas and resources have mainly been taken from the work of Professor Tim Feeney and resources from LEARNet (http://www.projectlearnet.org/index.html) and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resourcetag/executive-function/). 

I have developed a strong understanding of what EFs are, their function in self-regulated behavior and the flexibility required to help children and young people understand and apply the framework and sound bites themselves. I have built an understanding of how to teach key concepts related to self-regulation, support practitioner enquiry, intervention implementation, including the importance of applying current academic research and of disseminating learning.  Evaluation data has been very positive in relation to the work we have undertaken so far, but as interest grows in supporting self-regulation, more programs and approaches are being offered. I am now keen to understand more about other approaches, to inform choices about the most appropriate approach for schools in Scotland and how EPs might best support that, for example, a curricular approach to supporting Executive Functions.

I have started to explore other approaches in the following ways:

  • Meetings with Dr Josephine Booth (University of Dundee) to discuss her views on the development of EF and what she considers helpful in assessment and intervention for children and young people.
  • Contact with Adele Diamond from the University of British Columbia, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. She supported my contact with developers of Tools of the Mind, an evidence based school curriculum to support executive function and self regulation. As yet, the program is not being used outside of the USA. It is however, frequently referenced for making significant differences to the self regulation of children and young people. 
  • Contact with Dr Matt Baker, previous student of the Doctoral Programme in Educational Psychology at the University of Southampton who authored an academic critique of Tools of the Mind in 2013.
  • Contact with the developers of SMARTS, a web-based curriculum from the Research Institute for Learning and Development, seewww.smarts-ef.org.
  • Personal learning through TED talks, twitter and academic reading. 

 Proposal

My proposal is to gather more information about Tools of the Mind and SMARTS to consider how these programs have been successfully implemented in American educational centers, to inform learning and developments for theory and practice in Scotland. As part of that, I will consider how TotM and SMARTS are different to approaches used in Scotland so far.

Broad questions for consideration include:

  1. What has supported the effectiveness of ToTM and SMARTS?
  2. What has hindered effectiveness?
  3. How has progress been measured?
  4. What has been the role of educational psychologists in supporting the effectiveness (or what could their role be)?
  5. If a curricular approach to supporting EFs were to be adopted in Scotland, what would be needed?
  6. Some information to inform whether or not a curricular approach to supporting EF development would more effectively support the priorities of Scottish schools (ie closing the attainment gap) than current projects have been making efforts to do so.

I would like to undertake a study trip to observe Tools of the Mind being applied in the classroom and speak to staff who are using it. I hope to learn more about SMARTS and about how self regulation is being supported in the USA more generally.

I would like to offer an exchange of information as well and have been working to provide some video resources of work we have been doing in Scotland. I should have video footage of groups of young people talking about the self regulation support they have received and their views on that.

I also plan to make contact again with Dr Josephine Booth and Dr Matt Baker in advance of the trip to seek their view on key interest areas and plan to raise awareness of the trip with key staff in Education Scotland, ASPEP and SDEP.  Sharing the learning would be an important aspect of the trip. I would as a minimum provide a written summary and offer a presentation at the Annual Conference for Educational Psychologists in Scotland, 2017 should that be considered appropriate.

Experiences planned so far include:

  • Visits to two ToTM schools during week beginning 3rd October, one in New York City and one in New Jersey, with opportunity to observe ToTM lessons and speak with pupils and staff.
  • Shadow work with parents to support children’s EFs.
  • Attend the 7th Annual Executive Functions Conference Executive Function, Metacognition and Emotion: Fostering Resilient Learners on Friday October 21st (see www.researchild.org/special-events/ )
  • Meet with the developers of SMARTS and observe SMARTS being used in a classroom.