A smartphone can be an excellent tool for giving a lesson a different kind of content, but students often choose their own moment to check their phones. The guideline on the use of devices in the classroom therefore presents specific challenges for schools and education professionals. Will you make your school completely smartphone-free, or will you focus strongly on educational use? Every adjustment has consequences. It therefore does no harm to inform yourself thoroughly in advance.
Social safety is an overlooked argument
The new guideline states that mobile phones may henceforth only be used for the content of the lesson. An exception applies when a student depends on their phone, for example for medical reasons or because of a disability. There will therefore be more room for an exception to the rule in special education. The reason for this drastic intervention is that mobile phones are distracting, which means that students perform less well. Freek Zwanenberg of Bureau Jeugd & Media goes into this in a little more depth: “If you ban mobile phones from the classroom and school breaks, you notice that learning results improve significantly, especially among lower-performing students. Research abroad has already shown this repeatedly. Social safety is often overlooked. Among students, there is always a device within reach to quickly record something. Think of filming an angry teacher or a fight during the break, which is then shared online. The impact of this is very significant. By banning mobile phones from the classroom and the break, you therefore indirectly contribute to greater social safety at school.”
Difference between primary and secondary education
When implementing the new guideline, however, there is a major difference between primary and secondary schools. Freek explains: “At many primary schools, it has actually been common practice for years for mobile phones not to be visible throughout the day. In secondary education, the use of mobile phones is more integrated into lessons. In addition, teenagers are much more attached to their phones than primary school pupils, who often only have their own smartphone in year 7 or 8. That presents an additional challenge. At vocational education and training schools, it is even more complicated, because you cannot confiscate a phone when students are adults.”
Banning phones starts with providing information
When introducing either a complete ban on phones at school or no such ban, Freek advocates a gradual implementation: “As a school, consider it a process lasting several months, in which you try to involve all parties. Teachers, students, parents. The participation council. Organise parent evenings. It is important that the school leadership inspires and motivates people, takes them along, puts the issue on the agenda, allows you to discuss it together again and ensures that something is written about it that everyone can read back. The point is to let all those people provide input and then make your own decision. That works better than imposing your policy all at once in a kind of communist approach. By listening to everyone, brainstorming and opting for co-creation, you discover how layered it is. You will be surprised by how many parents consider it normal that they should be able to reach their child during school hours.”
Focus on enforcing a school-wide policy
The new guideline is not a statutory ban. This leaves plenty of room for determining the course to take regarding the banning of mobile phones. That is also immediately the main challenge for education professionals. “Everything depends on properly enforcing a school-wide policy,” Freek explains. “If, as a school, you choose to use the phone exclusively for educational purposes, for example as a calculator or by using specific apps, the challenge as an education professional is to ensure that those phones are put away somewhere at the beginning of the lesson. And when they are actually used, that students do not immediately start looking at Snapchat or TikTok. Enforcing classroom-wide use is often the problem. Especially for beginning teachers. With a very conservative rule such as ‘At home or in the locker all day’, you do not have that problem. Because then the phone simply is not there, not even during the break.”
Whether or not to ban phones during breaks
The choice to ban phones only in the classroom or also during breaks is a very significant one, in which the school's values also come strongly to the fore. Freek says the following about this: “If ‘well-being’ is an important value for you, as it is also a theme at Gezonde School, it is wise to consider a ban during breaks as well. It is essentially a moral choice. As a school, do you want to take on the educational task of encouraging students to talk to one another normally, and simply behave in a natural way? Or do you opt to allow the use of mobile phones during breaks, resulting in a completely silent assembly hall, because that is the reality in many places? Take some time as a school to think about this. The government says nothing about it, but it may make all the difference in the choices you make as a school. Consider values such as autonomy, connection and respect. What reflects your school's core value?”
Read here the full story on the Gezonde School website.