Are teachers and schools right to take away or even ban phones in schools?
by Boris Nusinzon
Managing Editor
Smartphones have continued to be a contentious subject in schools across the United States. Phones have the potential to be an incredible distraction during classes and prevent learning, as students always have checking their notifications in the back of their minds, or even take phones out in the middle of active class instruction. This has led to pushback in a variety of counties and states– ranging from giving students warnings or referrals if they have their phones out during class to taking phones for the duration of a class to fully banning any use of smartphones during the school day.
Many studies corroborate that phones in school may reduce learning and cause distractions during class. A 2017 Journal of the Association for Consumer Research study found that “the mere presence of a cell phone, even when it is silenced and stored out of sight, might be undermining our ability to focus,” according to Edutopia.
A University of Chicago Press research paper continues this concept, stating that “smartphones may also impair cognitive performance by affecting the allocation of attentional resources.” This finding implies that when smartphones are within the vicinity of students, they are likely to have reduced attention span and capacity for learning.
Furthermore, according to EAB, a 2016 “Journal of Media Education” study found that “Around 97% of college students use their phones during class for non-educational purposes.” This information is especially concerning when put into perspective, as phone use during class directly translates to lower grades and test scores. Quoting a Science Direct study, InnerDrive found that “…researchers discovered a negative relationship between mobile phone usage and students’ academic performance, such that every 100 minutes that a student spent using their phone a day led to the student dropping 6.3 places in terms of their academic school ranking.” Even worse, “This effect was doubled when the students used their phone whilst actually in class.”
These effects of in-school phone use have led to a variety of restrictions being imposed in public schools across the country, from relatively minor to more extreme measures.
The first two types of phone restrictions are found within Northern High School. The first restriction is a general school policy implemented by NHS, being that phones are to be off and away during class except when allowed by the teacher. If phones are out when they are not supposed to be, there will first be a warning and eventually a referral.
The second type of phone restriction is a per-teacher decision. Several NHS teachers have made the decision to take phones during classes and put them in a smartphone “cubby” for the duration of the class.
Ms. Bradley, a teacher who uses this policy, said: “I am a firm believer that there is no place in a classroom setting for cell phones. I feel like our students don’t know how to communicate in person, our attention spans have been shortened and that student’s social emotional well being has been harmed by cell phone use…”. She felt that her cubby policy was highly effective, stating that she eased into the policy and it eventually became a zero-tolerance referral policy. Ms. Bradley noticed “a significant difference in the student’s participation within group activities and full classroom activities.”
Mrs. Troncone added that the same policy is highly beneficial in her classroom, as “Students focus on class much better when they don’t have distractions from alerts on their phones from social media or friends texting them about whatever happened last period.”
She felt strongly that the procedure made her class a better environment when phones are “out of sight,” “out of mind.” Mrs. Troncone noted that, “Numerous times I have seen students struggling to get through class because they were still dealing with drama from social media. They couldn’t get a break from it because it is right there on their phone and even just a quick ‘I am checking the time’ turns into a much longer time… and now they don’t know what we have covered in class.”
The benefits of not having the temptation to use your phone are tangible, but many schools take the concept of reducing phone use in schools one step further. Many schools across the country and in Europe have chosen to completely ban all phone use during the school day. The BBC wrote in October, “Head teachers in England will be told to ban pupils from using mobile phones for the entire school day – following new government guidance… Around the world there are mobile phone bans in schools, including in France and China where national bans on phones in schools have been introduced. The Netherlands will also ban mobile phones in school from 2024.”
These phone bans have previously yielded clear benefits in areas of the United Kingdom where they were instituted; The74, quoting a study by Louis-Phillipe Beland and rRichard Murphy, found that “dozens of high schools that instituted bans on mobile phones saw significant improvement in scores on high-stakes tests. The increase was especially large for the lowest-performing pupils, who saw a jump in scores more than twice as large as the average student.”
The practice has even been implemented in some American schools. In May, Florida passed a law requiring public schools to restrict student smartphone use during class time– and Orange County Public Schools went further than the written law, banning them during the entire school day. Reporting on the decision, the New York Times found that the ban had made the atmosphere at one school in the county, Timber Creek High School, “both more pastoral and more carceral.” The principal of the school added that “students now make eye contact and respond when he greets them,” and that “Teachers said students seemed more engaged in class.” Additionally, the ban made the school safer as phone-related incidents like bullying decreased.
Many students in the school were displeased with the ban, however, feeling that it was “regressive,” disallowing them from checking class schedules, taking photos of projects, finding their friends at lunch, or adding phone numbers of new friends. A 13-year-old middle schooler said, “It feels completely isolating.”
An argument most definitely can be made against confiscating or fully banning phones in schools. Phones provide students with many benefits in school– they are able to communicate with their friends during school, listen to music during non-instructional time, submit assignments that need pictures during school, or look up educational information. Confiscations or bans may also worry parents, as communicating with their children if an after-school plan changes or there is a dangerous situation would be much more difficult.
As a whole, a variety of stances and positions have been taken worldwide on the usage of phones in schools. The issue is multilayered, and Calvert County alongside Northern High School will have to take careful consideration on what policy they wish to continue to utilize.