The Importance of Executive Functions and Social-Emotional Skills for Students’ Academic Success in Sub-Saharan Africa

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Research in high-income countries has emphasized the importance of executive functions (EFs) and social-emotional skills for children’s academic success. Children in sub-Saharan Africa face enormous academic challenges including large class sizes, low instructional quality, and high rates of teacher absence. The papers presented in this session aim to highlight evidence on the crucial role of EFs and social-emotional skills for primary school students’ academic success in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

The first paper examined three measures of children’s EFs and their links to children’s academic achievement. Results demonstrated that brief, direct EF assessments were predictive of growth in numeracy skills and reports on children’s EF-related classroom behaviors were predictive of growth in literacy skills. The second paper demonstrated that both EFs and children’s motivation uniquely predicted their literacy and numeracy skills. These findings suggest that children benefit from both the ability (EFs) and will (motivation) to learn in these classroom environments. The third paper shows that EFs mediate associations between children’s home environments and their literacy skills. These results highlight the important role of children’s home experiences in supporting their academic success in low- and middle-income contexts (LMICs).

Together these studies suggest that EFs and social-emotional skills may be particularly important in LMICs, where learning relies greatly on students’ self-regulation of their attention and behaviors. We will highlight ways to measure EFs and social-emotional skills in LMICs, as well as interventions aimed at improving children’s home environments and non-academic skills, which will likely have cascading effects on children’s academic achievement.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: Global South

Chair

• Jenna Elizabeth Finch, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Discussant

• Dana Charles McCoy, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• Direct Assessment, Teacher Report, and Observed EF Skills and Behaviors: Unique Associations with Academic Achievement in Ghana - Presenting Author: Ishita Ahmed, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Lily Steyer, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Noelle Suntheimer, University of Pennsylvania; Non-Presenting Author: Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania; Non-Presenting Author: Jelena Obradovic, Stanford University

• Executive Functions and Motivation Uniquely Predict Children’s Academic Development in Côte d’Ivoire - Presenting Author: Jenna Elizabeth Finch, University of Nebraska - Lincoln; Non-Presenting Author: Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania; Non-Presenting Author: Guilherme Lichand, University of Zurich

• Impact of Home Learning Environments and Nutrition on Executive Function Development: Insight from rural Côte d’Ivoire - Presenting Author: Kaja K Jasinska, University of Toronto; Non-Presenting Author: Benjamin Zinszer, Swarthmore College; Non-Presenting Author: Joelle Hannon, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Author: Zizhuo Xu, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Author: Axel Blahoua Seri, Centre de Recherche et d'Action pour la Paix; Non-Presenting Author: Fabrice Tanoh; Non-Presenting Author: Hermann Akpe, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny