Founded by Lynn Meltzer, Ph.D., the Research Institute for Learning and Development (ResearchILD) offers professional development, conferences, workshops and instruction on executive function, strategy instruction, metacognition, learning differences including ADHD and dyslexia, cognitive flexibility, and many more topics related to promoting strategic and self-aware learning.

MetaCOG Surveys & Toolkit

Are you looking for a tool to help you and your students better understand their executive function strategy use, motivation, and effort? The MetaCOG Surveys & Toolkit, an interactive executive function survey system, helps students to develop an understanding of how they learn and what motivates them.

These unique online surveys:

• Enable students to understand their effort, motivation, and individual EF profiles​.
• Provide teachers with a class summary and action plan framework.
• Can be used by educators and educational therapists to help students to understand their motivation, effort, strengths and challenges, as well as the strategies that could be most helpful for them.
• Help educators to collaborate with students to develop a plan for addressing students’ motivation, effort, EF challenges, and strategy use.
• Offer ways to measure students’ growth over time.

The MetaCOG Surveys were developed in 2004 as a criterion-referenced assessment system to compare students’, teachers’, and parents’ perceptions of students’ effort, strategy use, and academic performance (Meltzer, Katzir, et al., 2004; Meltzer, Reddy, Pollica, 2004; Meltzer, Reddy, Sales, et al., 2004; Meltzer, 2010, 2014, 2018). The MetaCOG surveys are used to promote students’ metacognitive awareness and build a classroom culture that helps students to understand their learning profiles.

For more information about the MetaCOG Surveys & Toolkit, please visit our landing page.

Contact us for custom pricing or purchase now with a credit card.

Professional Development

We offer customized school trainings and workshops, both online and in person. We work with teachers and administrators to deliver personalized SMARTS trainings designed to meet educators’ specific needs. School sessions vary in length and depth depending on the needs of the school, ranging from a broad SMARTS overview to a more immersive experience. In addition, we offer ongoing coaching and support throughout the school year. Contact us for more information.

Online Workshops and Trainings

Throughout the year, we offer a series of paid online workshops and trainings that take a deep dive into a wide range of executive function topics. Hosted by experienced members of the ResearchILD team, these workshops provide participants with practical approaches to the instruction of executive function strategies. Recent topics have included the role of flexible thinking in reducing stress for students in hybrid and remote learning environments, metacognition and its role in student resiliency, and executive function and time management, among many other topical areas. Join us!

Free Webinars

To provide educators and parents with exposure to the basics of Executive Function (EF), we periodically offer free webinars that touch on the importance of executive function across a range of topic areas. These webinars offer practical tips for engaging students around EF strategies, and provide participants with the opportunity to learn from EF experts how to support the EF needs of students of all ages and learning abilities.

If you miss one of our paid or free webinars, you can still join us! We have a complete playlist on our YouTube channel. We have recorded many of our most popular SMARTS programs and you can stream them for free or for a small fee (depending on the topic, length, and presenters). Take a look at our current offerings.

Executive Function Conference

The Executive Function Conference, founded and chaired by Lynn Meltzer, Ph.D., now in its 37th year, was held on November 3-4, 2022 in a virtual format. Last year’s conference theme was Executive Function and Social-Emotional Learning: Promoting Resilience, Stress Management, and Academic Success. This conference addressed the close connections between executive function and social-emotional learning and the importance of examining these processes for students from K-12 to college. Presentations highlighted the themes of Executive Function, Emotion, Anxiety, and Stress in the context of research, clinical practice, and teaching. Read more information about the conference now.

Contact us to determine which professional development opportunity is right for you.