abc - attentive, bethought, clever! Strengthening executive functions and selfregulation as basic skills for safety, health and academic success in primary school

Status:

ongoing

Aims:

The aim of the project is to strengthen executive functions and self-regulation of children in primary school as a central precondition for safety and health behaviour. For this, a concept for primary schools is to be developed and evaluated. With this concept, teachers and other school actors can strengthen executive functions and self-regulation of students in everyday school life. The concept will be based on scientific findings that allow for the conclusion that by improving executive functions and self-regulation, children are better able to pursue health, safety and learning goals and to be mindful of oneself and others. The implementation of the project is carried out through the qualification of the teachers. A school-based approach will support the sustainable implementation of the concept. If it proves successful, the concept should be implemented as wide as possible.

Activities/Methods:

The development of the concept is based on current scientific knowledge and existing experience of the ZNL Transfer Center for Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm in the development and evaluation of kindergarten- and school-based concepts for the promotion of executive functions. The intervention comprises eight qualification modules, process support and process monitoring for schools. The evaluation is carried out in a pre-post-control group design with follow-up measurements using qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed methods). This allows to investigate the effectiveness of the concept as well as factors relevant for successful implementation. 6 model schools and 6 comparison schools participate. Effects at the setting, teacher and child level are examined by means of observations, questionnaire surveys, interviews and standardised tests. Due to the nested structure of the data, multi-level analyses will be carried out. For this purpose, N=60 teachers and N=780 children will be included in the questionnaire surveys and N=480 children in on-site testing.

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