94% of high school kids use social networks in class
12/25/2012 23:38
University of Haifa study shows permissive teaching style decreased phone usage; students also listen to music, play games.
Facebook on iPhone. Photo: Courtesy
According to a study conducted at the University of Haifa and released on
Tuesday, 94 percent of Israeli high school students tend to surf social
networking websites such as Facebook at least once during class.
The
research, which was conducted by Dr. Itai Beeri and Dana Daniel, a student at
the university’s School of Political Sciences, examined the extent of use, type
of use, time of use, use of mobile phones as well as the relationship of usage
to the teacher’s disciplinary methods in the classroom.
The data showed
that students also listen to music, play games and send text messages and
pictures, in addition to using sites like Facebook or YouTube.
In fact,
95% of students take pictures and record voice or video during class for
purposes unrelated to school work; 94% regularly send email and text messages;
93% listen to music; and 91% even talk on their cellphones while sitting in
class.
The results also revealed that on average, each student uses their
mobile in 60% of the lessons.
“The use of the devices largely stands out.
Students who highly disturb the flow of the lesson also are at risk for
potential long-term, persistent and accumulative damage that expands far beyond
the classroom,” the researchers wrote.
They added that this phenomenon
clouds the education system, school atmosphere and academic achievements of the
class, as well as the student’s learning experience and the teacher’s
effectiveness in dealing with disciplinary problems.
“There is almost no
time throughout the lesson during which none of the students is using his
cellular phone,” the study noted.
Only 4% of the teenagers do not use
their mobile phone in class at all.
Moreover, Berri and Daniel also found
a relationship between the use of mobile devices in class, as reported by the
students, and the disciplinary methods of their teachers, as reported by the
teachers themselves.
According to them, teachers who have displayed more
permissive methods have managed to decrease usage in their class, while
instructors with a more rigid philosophy have higher rates of use in
class.
The study, which involved 591 students in grades 10 to 12 and 144
teachers in various subjects from three Israeli high schools, also showed that
mobile device use occurs more frequently in classes on humanistic rather than
scientific subjects.
In addition, 10th-graders engage in the activity
much more than 12th-graders, and the older the teacher, the lower the level of
mobile phone usage.