Exploring Time, Context, and Teacher Practices Associated with Executive Functions in Australian Preschool Settings

Abstract The pedagogical practices of early childhood teachers can help to develop executive functions (EFs) in children. However, which practices foster these functions, how much time early childhood teachers devote to supporting EFs, and when such interactions may occur require research attention. Using a quantitatively driven concurrent design, this study employed an exploratory adaptation of the Preschool-Setting Executive Function (PSEF) observational framework as the primary data source to examine the types of behaviours in children that displayed EFs, the practices teachers used to cultivate EFs, and how these interactions were grounded in everyday preschool practice. Semi-structured interviews with participating teachers provided supplementary data to explore their understanding and reflections on supporting EFs. The sample comprised six teachers and 62 children aged 3 to 5 years from three early childhood centres run by the same not-for-profit organisation in Melbourne, Australia. Observational data were examined using descriptive analysis and correlations, while interview data were analysed through an abductive thematic analysis approach. Both data sources were integrated during interpretation to examine alignment between the teachers’ reported and observed practices. The findings showed that: (1) supporting autonomy and encouraging sustained shared thinking were the most common pedagogical practices teachers used to support EFs in children; (2) while teachers articulated the importance of EFs for children’s learning and development, they typically devoted very little time to fostering them; and (3) when teachers actively engaged in activities to cultivate EFs, children were likely to show these skills in real time.