Some other interesting findings from the phone ban study: Students exposed to the cell phone ban were substantially more (!) supportive of phone-use restrictions. The ban increased students' perceptions of greater benefits from these bans and reduced students preferences for unrestricted access.
Despite a mild rise in reported fear of missing out, there were no significant changes in overall student well-being, academic motivation, digital usage, or experiences of online harassment.
There were maybe some potential drawbacks. Spot checks of classrooms in the study revealed that students in the banned classes appear more distracted, possibly due to withdrawal from habitual phone checking. However, students did not report being more distracted.
Ultimately, the authors of the study conclude: "[Our] results suggest that in-class phone bans represent a low-cost, effective policy to modestly improve academic outcomes, especially for vulnerable student groups, while enhancing student receptivity to digital policy interventions."
It is interesting whether this conclusion really requires much quantitative evidence. Is it true if the effect is 0.01 SDs? Maybe so, not sure. I guess this gets at what study design here would be sufficient for policy choice.
Good point. I find this tidbit fascinating. bsky.app/profile/john...
"Removing Phones from Classrooms Improves Academic Performance" papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
