Abstract
The present study investigates the interplay of executive functions, motivation, and teacher’s autonomy support in school context. In a cross-sectional study design 208 students from different school types completed a standardized motivation questionnaire and processed two executive function tasks. All teachers who teach these students were asked about their autonomy supporting behavior by a standardized test. Multilevel analyses assessed the effects of the student’s motivation and their teachers’ autonomy support on student’s executive functions. Our results show considerable relationships between these variables: high executive function capacities came along with teacher’s autonomy support and student’s intrinsic motivation styles, whereas low executive function capacities were related to external regulation styles. The results indicate the importance of autonomy support in school instruction and disclose the need to popularize the self-regulation approach.
Highlights
Cognitive abilities influence the way children succeed in school
Our results show considerable relationships between these variables: high executive function capacities came along with teacher’s autonomy support and student’s intrinsic motivation styles, whereas low executive function capacities were related to external regulation styles
In order to add to the existing literature, we investigated the interplay between executive functions in school children and psychological and social factors such as motivation styles and teachers’ autonomy support, respectively
Summary
Cognitive abilities influence the way children succeed in school. For example, low levels of cognitive abilities at school entry are associated with lower later academic achievement, greater retention and special education referral, and have the potential to enhance dropout rates in school (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1995). If a child has impairments in inhibition, it may have trouble focusing on given tasks without being constantly distracted by other (sometimes more appealing) impulses, or, such as child may fail to inhibit socially non-desirable behaviors in its learning environment such as kindergarten and school classroom. Another example, if a child has impairments in cognitive flexibility/shifting, it may get stuck on a thought, perseverating only on that topic, even though other impulses are given that might lead to the appropriate direction
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