‘Two thumbs up’ for Classroom phone ban, Fraser Institute researcher

No texting or scrolling TikTok for students during class time this fall. The recent provincial directive to ban cell phones in class for K-12 students has been given “two thumbs up” by a researcher at the Fraser Institute.

“I think it’s a very positive move and the evidence is piled up over the years that having cell phones in the classroom is a distraction,” said senior fellow Michael Zwaagstra on Wednesday’s Evan Bray show.

“It takes away from learning and it’s not good for students, it’s not good for teachers and so having cell phones not in class (is) absolutely a good move.”

Zwaagstra cited research from author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt — whose work posits that even just having a cell phone on one’s person can be a distraction in its own right.

“When you have a cell phone with you, what research has shown is that you tend to think about it. And so even if it’s not in your hand — if it’s in your pocket and it’s buzzing, you’re immediately thinking about ‘What is that message?’ And when you’re doing that, you’re thinking about that rather than whatever happens to be going on in class,” he said.

Zwaagstra also said people aren’t as good at multi-tasking as they’d like to think and that cell phones have increased anxiety among young people and adults.

Zwaagstra, who is also a high school teacher, said the ban needs to be universal in order to be as effective as possible.

“The lower the level that you leave up enforcement to, the less likely that you’re going to have the clear enforcement,” he said.

“You’ll have some teachers that have very strong, firm authority in their classroom that are able to say no phones and students will respect that, but you’ll have many teachers, particularly newer teachers, that don’t have the confidence to be able to do that,” Zwaagstra said.

“And so, if you have a school-wide ban, that’s better. A school board ban is better yet and then a province-wide band, if it’s properly enforced, is the gold standard.”

Zwaagstra said having a more widely-known ban reduces the chances of students arguing against it, especially if teachers emphasize that the decision comes from higher-ups.

Zwaagstra said making the announcement is a good first step but now it’s important for the province to identify specific exceptions.

“There’s always going to be some exceptions but you need to make those as narrow as possible,” he said.

Zwaagstra pointed to using cell phones to monitor blood sugar as a clear example of a reasonable exemption but took issue with the province’s wording of allowing a carveout for high school students with specific “learning needs”, arguing that it’s dangerously close to what the current rules are and could be subject to haggling from students.