School|Even in adults, keeping the phone on silent does not reduce the blinking of the cell phone, but can increase it.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
According to youth doctor Silja Kosola, the government’s plan to ban cell phones in schools is a step in the right direction.
Research carried out in Norway says that banning cell phones improves girls’ mental health and grades.
Bullying also decreases among teenagers after the introduction of the ban on cell phones, in addition to the Norwegian study, it has also been observed in Spain.
According to Kosola’s information, generally good experiences have been gained from collecting mobile phones in Finland.
Junior doctor Silja Kosola is “very happy” about the government’s plans to ban the use of cell phones in elementary school lessons.
“The phone ban during school days is now the lowest hanging fruit in this matter.”
Kosola is the first docent of adolescent medicine and general medicine specialist in the Nordic countries, who now works as the research director of the welfare region of Western Uusimaa. Previously, he has worked, among other things, as a school doctor and as the chief physician of children’s and youth health services.
Scientific the evidence on the effects of using or banning smartphones on learning outcomes and mental health is still quite fragmented.
However, according to Kosola, the evidence obtained so far from schoolchildren, high school students and university students suggests that when the phone is present during the lesson, it is disturbing, even if the mobile phone is in the backpack.
“The thought kind of jumps in that if I were to look at it. But especially if the phone is displayed on the table, it disturbs the concentration a lot,” says Kosola.
“Our human brain is still only able to do one thing at a time. And when you try to do many things at once, it increases the feeling of being burdened and that going to school would be somehow difficult or that there would be difficulty concentrating, even though it actually isn’t.”
Fresh there is research information on banning cell phones in schools from Norway.
The mobile phone ban implemented in middle schools there has reduced girls’ mental health symptoms and improved grades, reports a researcher from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Sara Abrahamsson in yet peerless in the study.
In addition, after the introduction of the mobile phone ban, girls continued their studies more often in high school. School grades improved, and going to high school increased, especially among girls from low-income and poorly educated families.
The smartphone ban also reduced bullying at school for both girls and boys.
According to Kosola, the results sound logical. He has not observed methodological weaknesses in the research that would change the results when the research is published in an official scientific publication after peer review by other researchers.
“It’s encouraging to think that the desire to continue studying increases when you can better focus on what you’re at school for.”
In Kosola’s opinion, it is not surprising that the changes are most visible in young people from low-income and low-educated families. They may not receive support at home for going to school and studying for a long time.
The better these students get work done during the school day, the more meaningful the cell phone ban can be for them.
The cell phone ban can also have other multiplier effects for children from low-income families. According to several studies, the parents’ low level of education and income increase the likelihood that the child will be bullied.
Norwegian studies with parallels of the results also reported by Spanish researchers a couple of years ago. When cell phones were banned in schools in two self-governing regions, bullying decreased in both regions. In one of the areas, the Pisa results also improved.
On the other hand, in the Swedish one in the study cell phone bans were found to have no effects on school success.
Just putting the phone on silent doesn’t seem to work even for adults, says what has been done with adults yhdysvaltalaistutkimus. On the contrary: subjects looked at their phone more often when it was muted.
The government in the draft proposal, schools would be ordered to make rules regarding the use and storage of phones during the school day, including recess and meals.
“It’s a really good thing if the same ban can be extended to recess and meal breaks as well. They are important situations for young people to practice social skills in real life – paying attention to others, talking. The digital world is not enough to replace what young people need at this stage of development.”
Phone bans certainly do not solve all problems, says Kosola.
He has been in contact with several schools that have experimented with collecting cell phones during lessons. Some are schools in Espoo, some from other parts of Finland.
“Both teachers and students have generally been very satisfied. Of course, all changes always cause a little grumbling at first. But since then, everyone has given satisfied feedback that why didn’t we do this before. The peace of mind at work improves so much,” says Kosola.
He does not take a position on how the mobile phone ban should be technically implemented. Collecting cell phones is not a “blissful thing”. For example, some students have gotten around it by giving the school an old phone in the parking lot.
In addition, certain young people, such as those with diabetes, also need an exception to the mobile phone ban, as they use the phone to monitor their sugar balance, for example.