Jan 16, 2025 10:40 PM
https://bigthink.com/the-present/smartph...n-schools/
EXCERPTS: The movement to ban smartphones in schools extends globally as well. France, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Israel, and Sweden have all introduced policies at a national level, with Chile, Denmark, and England on the same trajectory. In 2023, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called for a global smartphone ban in schools to “tackle disruption by smartphones in classrooms and protect children from cyberbullying.”
But just as putting smartphones in teens’ pockets was a grand experiment, so too is taking the devices away. Parents, educators, and policymakers hypothesize that restricting phone use will improve teens’ social lives, boost academics, and cut down on bullying. Does science bear this out?
[...] The evidence collected thus far is unconvincing. Any positive effects of restricting smartphone use in middle and high schools are small or nonexistent.
Schools started to implement smartphone bans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have taken these opportunities to compare metrics before and after policies are enacted or, more commonly, to weigh outcomes in schools that ban smartphones versus schools that don’t.
In one review published in August, researchers at the University of Augsburg in Germany aggregated and analyzed five research studies looking at schools in Europe. Combined, the research suggests that bans can reduce social problems, the reviewers found. With reduced access to social media during school, kids couldn’t cyberbully each other as much. The reviewers also discovered a slight boost to academics.
Based on the early research, they recommended that “smartphone bans be introduced in schools, accompanied by educational measures, and evaluated regularly.”
In a widely touted study published in February 2024, Sara Abrahamsson, a postdoctoral researcher with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, looked at the effects of smartphone bans in schools in Norway. She found that bans greatly boosted girls’ mental health and slightly augmented their grades, while boys were unaffected. Abrahamsson theorized that girls’ higher phone use compared to boys could account for the difference in effect.
In another study carried out in South Australia, researchers compared schools that had instituted a ban requiring students to keep phones off and away during the entire school day versus those without such a policy.
“Overall, the results indicated that the ban and no ban schools either did not differ significantly, or there were minimal differences, in terms of problematic use of mobile phones, academic engagement, school belonging, and bullying,” the authors reported.
Marilyn Campbell, a professor in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, has conducted the most scoping review of the research on smartphone bans to date. She and her coauthors looked at 22 published and unpublished studies carried out across the world. Their assessment wasn’t exactly glowing.
“Overall, our study suggests the evidence for banning mobile phones in schools is weak and inconclusive,” they concluded. Any potential improvements to academics, mental health and wellbeing, and cyberbullying don’t seem to be meaningful.
They added that while one-size-fits-all policies at state or national levels may be politically popular, they aren’t in the best interest of schools or students. “Politicians should leave this decision to individual schools, which have direct experience of the pros or cons of a ban in their particular community.”
In general, the studies on smartphone bans were also poorly designed and could not root out cause and effect, Campbell and her coauthors added... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: The movement to ban smartphones in schools extends globally as well. France, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Israel, and Sweden have all introduced policies at a national level, with Chile, Denmark, and England on the same trajectory. In 2023, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called for a global smartphone ban in schools to “tackle disruption by smartphones in classrooms and protect children from cyberbullying.”
But just as putting smartphones in teens’ pockets was a grand experiment, so too is taking the devices away. Parents, educators, and policymakers hypothesize that restricting phone use will improve teens’ social lives, boost academics, and cut down on bullying. Does science bear this out?
[...] The evidence collected thus far is unconvincing. Any positive effects of restricting smartphone use in middle and high schools are small or nonexistent.
Schools started to implement smartphone bans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have taken these opportunities to compare metrics before and after policies are enacted or, more commonly, to weigh outcomes in schools that ban smartphones versus schools that don’t.
In one review published in August, researchers at the University of Augsburg in Germany aggregated and analyzed five research studies looking at schools in Europe. Combined, the research suggests that bans can reduce social problems, the reviewers found. With reduced access to social media during school, kids couldn’t cyberbully each other as much. The reviewers also discovered a slight boost to academics.
Based on the early research, they recommended that “smartphone bans be introduced in schools, accompanied by educational measures, and evaluated regularly.”
In a widely touted study published in February 2024, Sara Abrahamsson, a postdoctoral researcher with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, looked at the effects of smartphone bans in schools in Norway. She found that bans greatly boosted girls’ mental health and slightly augmented their grades, while boys were unaffected. Abrahamsson theorized that girls’ higher phone use compared to boys could account for the difference in effect.
In another study carried out in South Australia, researchers compared schools that had instituted a ban requiring students to keep phones off and away during the entire school day versus those without such a policy.
“Overall, the results indicated that the ban and no ban schools either did not differ significantly, or there were minimal differences, in terms of problematic use of mobile phones, academic engagement, school belonging, and bullying,” the authors reported.
Marilyn Campbell, a professor in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, has conducted the most scoping review of the research on smartphone bans to date. She and her coauthors looked at 22 published and unpublished studies carried out across the world. Their assessment wasn’t exactly glowing.
“Overall, our study suggests the evidence for banning mobile phones in schools is weak and inconclusive,” they concluded. Any potential improvements to academics, mental health and wellbeing, and cyberbullying don’t seem to be meaningful.
They added that while one-size-fits-all policies at state or national levels may be politically popular, they aren’t in the best interest of schools or students. “Politicians should leave this decision to individual schools, which have direct experience of the pros or cons of a ban in their particular community.”
In general, the studies on smartphone bans were also poorly designed and could not root out cause and effect, Campbell and her coauthors added... (MORE - missing details)
