The mayor of New York recently lifted a ban on mobile
phones on school premises. New research from the London School of Economics indicates
that’s probably a mistake.
Researchers Richard Murphy and Louis-Phillppe Beland
studied how phone policies at 91 schools in England have changed since 2001. Comparing
the data against results from national exams taken by 130,000 students showed that
test scores improved by 6.4% after schools banned phone use. Average test
scores for underachieving students rose by 14%.
The researchers said that banning phones in schools was
equivalent to adding one hour of instruction each week. They also found that banning
mobile phones had no effect on high achievers and 14-year-olds were not
affected in either direction.
“These findings do not discount the possibility that
mobile phones and other forms of technology could be useful in schools if their
use is properly structured,” the researchers wrote.
“However, our findings do suggest that the presence of mobile phones in schools
should not be ignored.”
