I am so pleased to announce the release of the 2nd edition of Executive Function in Education: From Theory to Practice. When I edited the first edition ten years ago, I saw a gap between the cutting-edge researchers working on executive function and the administrators, teachers, and educators who were seeing the damage that executive function challenges can have on students’ learning.
If anything, the pace, pressure, and expectations our students face have increased over the past ten years. Even in elementary school, students are expected to complete lengthy assignments as well as conduct research online for long-term projects — all tasks that rely heavily on executive function processes. Teaching has continued to evolve, yet it is a constant challenge for teachers to spend time on teaching students HOW to learn when they are tasked with teaching content instead. As a result, a large gap separates the skills and strategies taught in school from the executive function processes needed for success in school and in the workplace.
There have been major advances in research on executive function processes in terms of both theory and practice. This second edition reflects these changes, updating material found in the first edition and including five entirely new chapters. Writers discuss executive function processes in early childhood (Chapter 4), executive function processes and reading difficulties in the context of fMRI research (Chapter 8), working memory and reading (Chapter 9), self-regulation and reading comprehension (Chapter 10), and the creation of strategic classrooms and schools where executive function strategies are embedded in the curriculum (Chapter 11). The fourteen chapters span a broad range of perspectives and include recent research in the neurosciences as well as developmental, cognitive, and educational psychology.
My hope is that this volume will help teachers to understand the importance of teaching strategies for lifelong learning so that students can perform at the level of their potential and gain an enduring education.
You can download a free chapter or purchase the book here.
- Lynn Meltzer, Ph.D., President and Director of Research