5847: Learning to Learn: Student Skills for School and Life

Speaker: Sarah Murphy, Evaluation Manager and Professional Learning Specialist

Sarah Murphy: Hi, I'm Sarah, one of the course designers at Teaching Channel. Do you have students who struggle with a messy desk, returning homework on time or making the transition from recess to reading class? Course 5847 Learning to Learn: Student Skills for School and Life may be just what you're looking for. In this course, you'll gain a better understanding of what executive functioning skills are, the brain science behind them, and how to help students build their skills. The author of the course text calls executive functioning skills the missing link to student achievement. But what are they? Executive functioning skills include working memory, planning, problem solving, cognitive flexibility, self-regulation, all of the skills that help students make it successfully through the school day. If a student is struggling with these skills, it might appear as difficulties getting started or persisting with a task, difficulty focusing struggles to handle transitions or manage big emotions.

Sarah Murphy: What I love about this course is that it offers strategies and activities to support students in developing their executive functioning skills no matter where they are to begin with. So if a student has quite strong executive functioning skills, the course offers ideas to take them into empowerment, creativity, leadership, to really go beyond. Or if a student is struggling with their executive functioning skills the course has suggestions for accommodations and interventions to meet students needs and provide intensive development of these skills.