Executive function is
getting a lot of attention these days particularly in schools, museums, and
libraries. Located in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, an area that
keeps track of goals, engages in abstract problem-solving, and moderates
appropriate behavior, executive functions weave,
mediate, and integrate both cognitive and social
capacities.
While developing
early in life and rapidly during the preschool years, executive brain functions are not important just for children. Throughout
life, we need to regulate emotions, delay gratification, and make plans. During
adolescence some executive functions improve, becoming more efficient and
effective with increased mastery over thinking, emotions, and behavior. During
the 20’s, executive function skills are at their peak and begin to decline in
later adulthood.
Models for executive function break
down and describe them with some variation. The executive functions explored in Ellen Galinsky’s
book Mind In the Making: The Seven Essential Skills Every Children Needs
are: focus and self-control, perspective taking, communicating, making
connections, critical thinking, taking on challenges, and self-directed and engaged learning.
Evidence of executive function is
apparent in the focus and inhibitory
control displayed in persistence in
following an activity to its natural conclusion or sticking with something
after a setback. Taking another
perspective and putting oneself in another’s shoes involves cognitive
flexibility. Making connections is
critical to making sense of a situation and relies on recognizing similarities
and differences, using rules and applying and recombining elements in various
and inventive ways.
Involved in language,
play, learning, and social interactions, executive functions have a definite
place in museums.
Recently, IMLS released Brain-Building Powerhouses: How Museums and Libraries Can Strengthen Executive Function Life Skills with Mind in the Making and Families and Work Institute. A study on
executive function skills in museums and libraries, it explores what they are,
why they are important, how children develop them, and how museums and
libraries promote them.
The report identifies 6
assets museums and libraries can leverage to support executive function skills
from Family Engagement to Community Partnerships. Museums are incorporating
information on executive function skills into programs for parents, programming
where children practice science skills, and kits. Portland Children’s Museum
has developed a handbook summarizing 7 skills.
These and other efforts to
deliberately incorporate executive function skills cluster into two general areas.
First, handbooks, webinars, text, and handouts focus on and summarize the
content of executive function skills. Print materials in text panels and
handouts provide explanation, tips, and prompts for parents and caregivers. Materials
cover recent research, developmental information, and examples about how activities and experiences can
support development of specific life skills.
The second cluster of museum
efforts to incorporate executive function skills is around programmatic tools
and strategies. Kits, programs, research-based exhibits weave executive
function skills into museum experiences. Some museums offer informal
play-and-learn groups and formal parent training to develop parent and
caregiver awareness and skills.
Both areas of activities are
good and necessary for encouraging executive function skills in museums. They serve
as groundwork in bringing the content into the museum, building awareness of
how and why these skills are important, and supporting parents and caregivers
in valuing and encouraging these skills in children as they explore and play. Both help in building a case for support around a museum's intention and potential
to make a difference in the lives of visitors and the community.
Most museum efforts to encourage development of executive
function skills, however, overlook the enormous and indispensible asset of
prepared and engaged staff. In fact, in Brain-building Powerhouses, staff are not identified as one of the 6 assets that museums and libraries can use to promote executive function life skills.
Gallery guides, museum
educators, on-floor educators, docents, and volunteers who interact with
children and adults–daily and hourly, from arrival to departure–have the
potential to make connections to these life skills that even the best signs, tools,
and media cannot. Informed, practiced, and on the spot, staff are able to
customize a response, gesture, or comment to a child or adult and the situation. Moreover they
can model and scaffold for parents and caregivers, augmenting and making
visible what is in the text and what it looks like in reality.
Because experiences
are often planned to be self-guided, museums may not recognize the steady stream of opportunities
for knowledgeable and well-trained staff to support and advance development of
executive function life skills. Virtually every visitor encounter is an opening to model
or respond in helpful, focused ways. Children wait in line at admissions, use
a new tool in the maker space, scale the climber, or monopolize the green
screen. Getting separated from a parent or jumping the line at the crane may be
a self-guided experience; it can also use informed guidance.
Clearly parents and
caregivers play a critical role in fostering a child’s focus, self control,
persistence, and keeping information in mind during a task or activity. Is it
realistic, however, to expect adults to read text, absorb relatively complex content, and respond
accordingly as their child abandons an activity? Grabs a tool from someone else? Faces a
meltdown? What about when their hands are full with 2 or 3 children?
Well-prepared staff who
are familiar with the research on executive function and the related life
skills serve a function nothing else is able to. Not supervising a child, they can observe and notice
related behaviors, identify opportune moments for engagement, and scaffold these
skills. They can reflect on the interactions and discuss later with other staff. Modeling and scaffolding for parents and caregivers is a powerful way
for them to understand what self-regulation or working memory looks like and
what they might do in situations when prompts aren’t present. Even brief follow-up conversations with parents and caregivers can help make these connections.
Admittedly, the investment
in preparing staff well is considerable. Furthermore, not all staff may have
the capacity to engage with visitors around brain development and executive
function skills. In fact, only half the museum respondents to the IMLS study felt
staff has the capacity to converse with families and children about brain
development.
If this is where museums
hope to have a positive impact on their visitors and, ultimately, on their
communities, they need to take action on multiple fronts. Text,
handouts, posting information, and weaving experiences into exhibits to support
these important skills are only part of an approach that can be considered comprehensive and potentially effective. Without staff prepared to engage,
respond to, and support executive function life skills, the approach remains a well-intentioned museum interest. Fortunately, some
training in this area beyond introductory is occurring in museums. Mind in the Making and Boston
Children’s Museum are developing training for museum staff. Museums can also conduct small-scale experiments with trained on-floor educators in a particular exhibit to interpret messages and model interactions. These results would provide informed guidance in expanded staff engagement.
A wholehearted approach is what I think is
intended by one of the action steps in Brain-building Powerhouses: Embed a priority to develop executive
function life skills into all aspects of the operations: planning, facilities,
staff training, communications, guest services, etc.
In my mind, that's the top
action step if museums are serious about delivering results for executive brain skills
and–in fact for any area museums consider important such as creativity, the
importance of play, science learning, early development, literacy, etc.
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