Activating the attentive-executive system to foster learning at primary school

Abstract

The paper describes a study aimed at favouring learning via the use of teaching strategies supported by techniques for the activation of the attentive-executive system. Based on the expertise of the teachers, several pedagogic models of cognitive psychology were added to the teaching plan along with other paradigms extracted from neuroscience regarding the management of attentive states. The study, conducted in four unified schools in the Province of Trento, involved seven primary school first year classes and a total number of 105 students in four experimental classes (28 girls and 26 boys) and three control classes (31 girls and 20 boys). The students are aged 6.9 years on average. The purpose of the experience was to introduce curricular teaching practices that were more accessible and inclusive, and the results have been interesting as regards learning. The activities and materials offered within the curricular hours to all students of the experimental classes integrated the stimulation of the modular aspects (reading, writing, calculus) with the strengthening of the executive-attentive aspects. Within each teaching proposal, the curricular tasks and objectives pursued, as well as the mnestic and attentive sub-processes that could be improved and functional to learning, were always described. The statistical significance observed in the experimental classes compared to the controls involved learning
to read, write and calculate as well as the mnestic and attentive processes that underlie them and that are necessary for achieving continuously better levels of autonomy and consolidation of basic learning.