In this latest spin, I’m exploring the connection between physical activity, my own experience of being anything but athletic, and the role executive function plays in turning intention into action. After realizing I had overlooked physical health and movement in my New Year’s predictions, I wanted to emphasize that these dimensions are not just personal aspirations, they’re essential components of a well-rounded education. Equally important are the executive functioning skills that help us prioritize these dimensions and integrate them meaningfully into daily life. This spin will explore these connections for educators, parents, and today’s students.

Unlike my childhood, where movement was effortless, adulthood requires planning and adaptability to keep physical activity a priority. Growing up, I was fortunate to have a family with the resources to provide early movement experiences, from ice skating to learning to swim before I could walk. Physical activity was woven into my daily life: walking to school with siblings and friends, dropping my bag after school in the hallway and heading straight outside to play. I didn’t think much about it back then; it was simply part of life. The only team sport I ever played was high school basketball. Coaches approached me because of my height, yet I never saw myself as an athlete. I loved the game but lacked the assertive edge to excel beyond rebounds, relying mostly on my wingspan and ability to intercept passes. To be honest I remember hoping the ball wouldn’t come my way, doubting my ability to help the team, yet also laughing with friends on the bench in between plays and having a blast running laps to Bon Jovi. While I didn’t see myself as an athlete, I learned early that moving mattered, and it felt good.

Movement isn’t just about muscles, it’s a catalyst for sharper thinking, better decision-making, and the very systems that keep us alive. Executive functioning transforms physical activity from something that “just happens” in childhood into an intentional practice that supports living fully as an adult. I love how the word alive has entered the educational mainstream as a meaningful way to ground the experience of being fully aware of yourself and your contributions to the lives of those around you. I recognize that alive is not a word to be taken for granted, nor should it become a trendy term used to position higher levels of self-actualization or awareness. The embodiment of living and having a healthy body is sacred. Recently, I have been personally touched by some heartbreaking realities, and I want to be sure to honour living, and having a healthy, strong, and capable body, as a blessing, never to be diminished by trend-setting or treated in a flippant manner.

So let's explore what executive functioning is and its critical importance in progressive, impactful learning environments, and how it can better the lives of educators in a time when burnout rates and teacher shortages continue to increase in our field. I think we are missing the mark when we focus solely on classroom management as a core cause for struggling educators. Classroom management refers to the tools and strategies teachers use to keep students on task, organized, attentive and academically productive. While classroom management is a critical skill for effective educators, even the strongest management strategies won’t enable teachers to thrive without well-developed executive functioning skills.

Living fully in today's dynamic classroom requires educators to be adept at emotional regulation under stress, in environments where multiple personalities and realities can sometimes create unpredictability. When executive functioning skills aren’t developed, it affects more than school—it can spill into challenges in adult work life too. For example, those lacking situational awareness will struggle to shift their attention flexibly across today’s busy, diverse classrooms. The good news is that activating executive functioning skills is a teachable life skill, and there are practical ways to integrate these skills into all areas of school life.

Executive functioning is directly related to an individual’s ability to problem-solve and prioritize actions for healthy living. This is important to note before breaking down the components and processes of executive function. Individuals who can problem-solve and prioritize build internal confidence and develop patterns of organized thought. Physical activity plays a critical role in this process, as movement stimulates brain regions responsible for planning, focus, and self-regulation, key elements of executive function.

The landscape of executive functioning is evolving, and understanding its components is essential for supporting students, staff, families, and ourselves. The following sections break down the elements of executive function through an educational lens. A follow-up, future spin will dive into practical strategies and supports.

What is executive function?

The term executive functions (EF) has been in use for decades, but research on executive functioning and brain-based educational neuroscience has surged over the past thirty years. A widely accepted, multidimensional definition of EF is as follows:

1. EF are multiple in nature; they do not represent a single, unitary trait;
2. EF are directive in nature, they are mental constructs that are responsible for curing and directing the use of other mental constructs;
3. EF cue and direct mental functioning differentially within four broad construction domains; perception, emotion, cognition and action;
4. EF use can vary greatly across four areas of involvement: interpersonal, intrapersonal, environment and symbol system use;
5. EF begin development very early in childhood and continue to develop at least into the third decade of life and most likely throughout the life span, and
6. the use of EF is reflected in the activation of neural networks within various areas of frontal lobes (McCloskey et al., 2009).

In summary, executive functions are the cognitive processes that enable a person to engage in problem solving and goal directed behaviours. They refer to the broad set of cognitive skills used to organize, self-monitor, control and direct one's behaviour towards purposeful goals. Executive function skills are the higher-order cognitive processes involved in the self-regulation of human behaviour.

What is the role of executive function?

The following analogies are helpful in understanding the important role executive function plays in human development and behaviour. The role of EF has been likened to that of a:

1. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) responsible for planning, analyzing, prioritizing, decision making and taking actions to achieve goals;
2. Conductor of a symphony orchestra, responsible for managing, directing and integrating all of the individual components (cognitive processes) for a successful performance;
3. Control or command centre, which oversees the multiple processes of the brain (Rief, 2016).

If the brain is the engine of learning and self-regulation, executive function is the driver of the engine (Branstetter, 2016). The region of the brain that is associated with executive function is the prefrontal cortex, or the frontal lobe. This area of the brain continues to develop well into early adulthood, and executive functions are among the last to fully mature in child development. Knowing this fact can help parents and educators become more patient with students struggling in this area.

What are executive function skills?

While there are many formal definitions of executive function in the psychology of learning research, there is consensus that these skills encompass the cognitive processes needed to regulate your thinking, emotions, and behaviour in order to achieve a goal.

According to researchers, Branstetter (2016), McClosky & Perkins (2013), and Reif (2016), definitions of executive function skills include the following:

1. Activation/Task Initiation: Stopping what you are doing and starting a new task. Arousing effort and motivation to begin an action/task, particularly those that are not intrinsically motivating.
2. Response Inhibition: Keeping yourself from acting impulsively, in order to achieve a goal. Involving the ability to stop and think before acting/responding, resist temptations and delay gratification.
3. Focus/Sustained Attention: Directing your attention, keeping your focus, and managing distractions while working on a task, even if a task is tedious or not of interest.
4. Time Awareness and Management: Understanding and feeling the passage of time, planning good use of your time, and avoiding procrastination behaviours
5. Working Memory: Holding information in your mind long enough to do something with it (remember it, process it, act on it) and/or to problem solve.
6. Shifting/Flexibility: Being able to reflect on your actions and behaviours and make needed changes to reach a goal. It involves being able to mentally shift information around, have flexible thinking and make transitions (end one task and move on to another).
7. Self-Monitoring: Being aware of and checking one's own behaviour, thought processes, use of strategies, and comprehension. It involves monitoring and evaluating one's own performance and making changes in one's behaviours, actions and strategies as needed.
8. Emotional Control: Managing your emotions, modulating frustrations and reflecting on your feelings in order to keep yourself from engaging in impulsive behaviours.
9. Task Completion: Sustaining your levels of attention and energy to see a task to the end.
10. Organization: Creating and imposing order and structure to manage information, efficiently communicate one's thoughts and carry out goal-directed behaviour.
11. Planning: Designing a course of action (long and short term) with strategies and a sequence of steps to follow.
12. Prioritization: The ability to determine relative importance of various tasks, particularly those that are not intrinsically motivating.

Why does executive function matter to educators and parents?

Executive function (EF) skills in students are linked to school achievement and social-emotional development. Research has found that EF measured in childhood predicts a wide range of important outcomes, including readiness for school experiences (McClelland et al. 2007) and successful transitions into kindergarten (Blair and Razza 2007); school performance and social competence in adolescence (Mischel, Shoda, and Rodriguez 1989); and better life long physical health (Moffitt et al. 2011). EFs are predictive of achievement, health, wealth, and quality of life throughout life, often more so than IQ or socioeconomic status (Moffitt et al., 2011, Moffitt, 2012). 

For parents and educators, EF skill building is vitally important to embed in classroom instruction and the home environment. Strong executive function skills are directly linked to student success, influencing their ability to plan, focus, manage time, and adapt to challenges. Experts in the field, like Sarah Ward, have created groundbreaking, easy-to-use strategies for both settings. She is known for translating evidence-based research into hands-on strategies that empower students, educators, parents, and clinicians to strengthen executive function across real-world contexts. In West Vancouver Schools, we are looking forward to welcoming Sarah Ward back to our district later this month for a series of learning opportunities for educators, school leaders, and our parent community.

Bringing it Together: Executive Function as the Spark

Executive function is what turns intention into action. While I certainly wasn’t a basketball star, I learned early on how vital movement was, and how having a plan to embed it into my life made all the difference. From childhood play to high school basketball and now as a daily commitment, these habits have helped me maintain healthy pathways for processing complex emotions, tasks, and interactions. On days when life’s demands tip the balance, skipping physical activity might seem easy, but strong executive functioning reminds me that movement matters most when life feels hardest. Executive function is the spark that keeps the fire of well-being burning, and nurturing it ensures we have the fuel to thrive.

Author’s Note: In the spirit of transparency and academic integrity, I used Copilot, my go-to AI tool, to assist with editing for clarity and readability. My goal was to connect key themes professionally and personally as we kick off January 2026. Hopefully, the flow makes sense and doesn’t feel like a full-court press on your brain.