Executive functions, motivation, and children's academic development in Côte d'Ivoire.

Abstract

The role of executive function skills and motivation in supporting children's academic achievement is well-documented, but the vast majority of evidence is from high-income countries. Classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be large, teacher-driven, and lecture-focused, which may provide extra challenges for children to stay engaged in the learning process. Based in self-regulated learning theory, we tested the contributions of executive functions and motivation for children's literacy and numeracy skills over 1 school year. Our preregistered study of 2,500 primary school students in Côte d'Ivoire used lagged models with a robust set of demographic covariates. Executive functions were directly assessed, and children reported on their levels of motivation for schooling. Findings indicated strong longitudinal continuity of both literacy and numeracy skills over the academic year. Further, we found unique associations of executive functions and intrinsic motivation with changes in children's literacy skills and a unique association of executive functions, but not intrinsic motivation, with changes in children's numeracy skills over the school year. Overall, these results provide evidence for the importance of nonacademic skills for children's learning in a rural, sub-Saharan African context. Implications include improving access to preprimary education, the quality of primary school experiences, and teacher training and supports to increase children's early academic skills, self-regulation skills, and motivation for learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).