Before the current wave of laws banning mobile phones in schools, we had published a piece from some researchers who had looked at how similar bans had worked in Australia, with the conclusion that… they didn’t. At best, the research showed the evidence on school phone bans to be “weak and inconclusive.” Those authors suggested that rather than doing outright bans, politicians should leave the issue to the schools themselves to determine what’s best.
So it should come as little surprise that two years later, after many similar bans have gone into effect in the US that… the studies are showing up as (you guessed it) weak and inconclusive. The new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has some people shaking their heads because it can find no evidence of better student performance in schools.
Wait, you are telling me the moral outrage against smartphones massively misses the point?
Whatttt? I am shocked!
Banning smart phones in class is a no brainer if you want students to actually pay attention in class. But I’m baffled that they actually expected this ban to meaningfully improve test results.
Getting good grades involves doing your homework, prepping for tests, getting enough sleep to maintain your focus. All of which are done outside the classroom. If social media addiction is really the cause of plummeting school results, them banning phones inside the classroom is not going to solve the problem.
That’s like telling a junkie he can’t do drugs in class, but he can get his heroin back after school.
Though I’d say there’s also a difference between banning phones in school and saying you can’t use them during class. We couldn’t just read our favorite fiction paperback or comic book in class back in the day either. No one ever (that I recall) suggested banning them from the school. I don’t see much compelling evidence that social media is a cause, much more obvious to me is schools having become mostly worthless in the US.
And before anyone corrects me, yes I know the US public education system sucks, but I do believe social media use among children and young adults is having a seriously negative influence on the more vulnerable students.
Nothing makes me feel older than seeing all this opposition to phone bans in school. I don’t understand when the rules changed to allow kids to use them in the first place. I grew up before cell phones were ubiquitous, but if I brought my GBA to class, it would get confiscated. Obviously.
This will work out great! No student will ever sneak phones in class and text without the teacher looking, ever!
That’s the same logic as saying gun bans don’t work.
/woosh
I think the value of the phone ban is actually very simple. Banning it from school entirely makes it an administrative issue, not a teacher issue. So it takes “some” load off the teachers shoulders. That of course won’t manifest as better test scores though. But it might have a tiny affect on teacher retention.