Reply to A little concerned about Tools of the Mind

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[quote=Anonymous]From the August 19, 2011 issue of Science magazine (EF stands for Executive Function, which I think means regulation/self-control):

Classroom curricula. Two curricula that share important similarities have been shown to improve EFs (32). Tools of the Mind (Tools) is a curriculum for preschool and kindergarten developed by Bodrova and Leong (33) based on work by Vygotsky (34). Vygotsky emphasized the importance of social pretend play for the early development of EFs. During pretend play, children must inhibit acting out of character, remember their own and others’ roles, and flexibly adjust as their friends improvise. Such play exercises all three core EFs and is central to Tools. Children plan who they will be in a pretend scenario, and the teacher holds them accountable for following through. Bodrova and Leong initially tried Tools as an add-on to existing curricula. Children improved on what they practiced in those modules, but benefits did not generalize. For benefits to generalize, supports, training, and challenges to EFs had to be part of what children did all day at school and therefore are now interwoven into all academic activities.

Children are taught how to support nascent EFs by scaffolding with visual reminders (e.g., a drawing of an ear to remember to listen) and private speech. Instead of being embarrassed for being poor listeners, the simple drawing of an ear enables children to proudly be good listeners. As EFs improve, supports are gradually removed, gently pushing children to extend the limits of what they can do.

Tools was evaluated against another high-quality program by using EF measures that required transfer of training (35). Tools 5-year-olds outperformed control children on both EF measures (which taxed all three core EFs), especially on the more EF-demanding conditions. Thus, the program with more play produced better EFs than the one with more direct instruction. One school was so impressed by how much better Tools children were doing that it withdrew from the study and switched all classes to Tools.[/quote]

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