Shaping Children into Leaders

 Ways to teach children how to make the right decisions in an increasingly complex world have been the subject of numerous studies in recent years. The focus tends to revolve around Executive Function (EF) skills that, learned early enough in life, can be pillars of support throughout life, from school to the workplace.

The Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand, the Research Centre for Neuroscience, the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at Mahidol University, the RLG Institute (Rakluke Learning Group), the Preschool Education Association of Thailand, Class Publishing House and Prapakarn Education pooled ideas about EF learning in a recent panel discussion.

Interest in developing EF skills has led to children’s storybooks taking on fresh perspectives, a representative of the Publishers and Booksellers Association noted. 

The association has initially identified 139 of 400 children’s books as ideal for building EF skills and plans to encourage publishers to produce more. Another round of selections begins in June. 

Harvard University’s Centre on the Developing Child has characterised EF skills as the ability to retain and work with information, concentrate and switch between focuses with ease, much as an air-traffic controller manages the arrivals and departures of dozens of planes on multiple runways.

Executive Function – entails self-regulation based on working memory, mental flexibility and self-control. We aren’t born with these skills, but everyone has the potential to develop them. 

“EF involves higher-level cognitive functions, the mental process that can be divided into three sets of skills,” RLG Institute president Subhawadee Harnmethee said. “The foundation skills are working memory, inhibitory control, and shift, or cognitive flexibility. 

“The self-control skills are emotional control, focus or attention, and self-monitoring. And the practical skills are initiating, planning or organising, and goal-directed persistence. With continuous development of these skills, children will learn positive behaviour and good decision-making that will benefit them, their families and society.”

Chulalongkorn University Book Centre manager Songyos Samkasat stressed how “crucial” this skill set is in life. 

“We focus on developing intelligent people and children receive all sorts of gold medals. Society also needs good, moral people. But it’s well known now that successful people aren’t necessarily happy people. 

“These days we worry about the world we find at our fingertips on the touch screen,” Songyos pointed out. “With such an excess of information at hand, some people might read just the first few sentences of an article or someone else’s post and then share it on the social networks without even knowing if the information is correct or not. 

“So how can we prevent our children from becoming victims of these false messages? EF skills provide a scientific answer. Parents, teachers and society share a duty to give children the opportunities to develop executive-function skills successfully.”

Tida Pitaksantisuk of the Preschool Education Association said “active learning” should be the goal in every home and school. “It offers hope for individuals and society. The outcome would be a better-educated population capable of meeting the challenges of the future. 

“Studies of brain function indicate that EF skills begin to develop shortly after birth in the frontal lobe, which grows fastest during the first seven years of life,” she said. “It’s the golden time when adults and caregivers can get the children looking through the ‘magnifying glass’ of storybooks. 

“Education should not only instil daily life lessons but also an overall process for thinking that includes working towards goals, adapting, and resisting peer pressure to take risks, such as trying illegal drugs. Children need be more conscious about their personal safety. The world is getting more complicated, and just teaching them to brush their teeth regularly is no longer enough.”

Citing the popular story “Mae Kai Daeng” (“Red Chicken”), Tida said it typically teaches that the chicken’s hard work at growing rice allows it to succeed over the grasshopper. 

“Instead we should teaching children that the chicken is determined and focused on her goal and not distracted by the grasshopper’s invitation to play. That way, if a stranger offered sweets, the child would be better able to resist.”

The story “Klom Klom Kling Kling” (“Round and Roll”) is about a bear cub searching for its lost eye. “In terms of executive-function skills, it’s about solving a problem through careful attention, good planning and dedication to the task,” Tida said. 

“At the front of these books is an EF sticker containing the committee’s suggestions for how parents, teachers and other caregivers can highlight these skills for the young readers to enhance their development.”

Imparting executive-function skills shouldn’t stop at the pre-school level, Tida emphasised. 

“Kindergarten pupils can also be taught these skills through the love of reading and primary-school pupils should be shown how to put the skills to good use through simple assignments. And then secondary-school students should be able to harvest the skills and use them in their daily lives. 

“With the teaching of executive-function skills forming an overall umbrella for IQ and EQ [emotional quotient] development, we’ll be able to improve the overall quality of education in Thailand.”

 On the Web:

www.Facebook.com/RLGEF

www.DevelopingChild.harvard.edu