The role of executive functions in higher education students' learning and success
Executive Functions: The Hidden Driver of Academic Success in Higher Education
This dissertation of Diane Manuhuwa examines how executive functions—the brain’s regulatory capacities that enable individuals to control, plan, and sustain goal-directed behavior—contribute to self-regulated learning and academic success in higher education.
The studies show that executive functions and self-regulated learning complement each other: together, they account for almost 40 percent of the variance in academic success. Students with weaker executive functions and less effective learning strategies tend to earn fewer credits and are at greater risk of delay. Distinct student profiles further reveal that a combination of executive function difficulties and low motivation is particularly disadvantageous.
Executive functions were assessed through both self-report and performance-based measures; self-reports, in particular, provide meaningful insights into how students function in daily academic contexts. In addition, qualitative research on strategic behaviors illustrates how executive functions manifest in concrete study activities, such as planning, managing distractions, and seeking support.
Based on these findings, the dissertation offers practical implications for higher education: integrate the training of executive functions into teaching, make them an explicit topic of discussion, and coach students in developing strategies to plan, monitor, and adapt their learning.
Attention to executive functions is not a side issue, but a prerequisite for sustainable academic success and well-being in higher education.