Coding - 1.2 Assignment Practice (Classroom Expectations)

Cellphones in classrooms contribute to failing grades: Study

ABC News, Dr. Kevin Riutzel; July 27, 2018

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Cellphones can be distracting for students in classrooms, and new research also shows that using these electronic devices can even lower students’ grades.

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Research shows that smartphones can reduce the ability to think to a person’s full potential, and additional research from Stanford University reveals that intense multitasking—doing more than one thing at once, like responding to text messages and reading a book—decreases the efficiency of completing a given task.

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While previous studies demonstrated that divided attention may induce poor performance on exams, two researchers from Rutgers University sought to dive deeper. In a study published in the journal Educational Psychology, the two researchers divided 118 upper-level college students into two groups -- each enrolled in the same course, taught the same material by the same instructor, in the same classroom at roughly the same time of day.

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The difference? One group was allowed to have cell phones open for non-classroom purposes, and the other group wasn't.

The group using cell phones scored about a letter grade lower on exams -- the difference between passing or failing for some students. Of note, students who didn’t use a phone but were in the same classroom as those who did also scored lower. This was likely due to distraction from surrounding cell phones.

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Is this research applicable to non-college groups, like high schoolers, middle schoolers or even adults in meetings?

“No doubt,” Dr. Glass, one of the leaders of the study, told ABC News. “Absolutely for sure.”

“These findings," he added, "should alert the many dedicated students and instructors that dividing attention between a cell phone and class is having a harmful effect that is impairing their exam performance and final grade."

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• After the first 10 minutes of the class

• Before the last 10 minutes of class

• Only one student at a time

• Sign in & out by the door

• NO cell phones

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• Excused

  • Quietly come in

  • Place note on my desk

• Unexcused  

  • ​Quietly come in

    Loss of that day’s participation points.