Phone ban in lectures at 10 Indian colleges raised grades slightly in a trial of 16,683 students

A team led by Alp Sungu of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania ran a randomized trial of a classroom phone ban at 10 colleges and universities in Odisha, eastern India. According to Earth.com, the trial covered the spring semester of 2024, from February to May, and included 16,683 students, 742 teachers and 2,305 courses. The study was published in Science. earth.comEarth.comearth.comOpen source ↗

Trial design

The researchers built about 1,000 wooden deposit boxes from recycled materials and placed one in every classroom. Departments were split by year of study into 420 groups, and a random draw assigned 198 of them to the ban. In those groups every student handed over a phone before each lecture; students with a documented emergency or caregiving duty could notify the teacher beforehand.

The boxes stood in the other classrooms too, so the groups differed only in whether the rule was enforced. Participants averaged 19 years old, and about a third were women. Grades came from end-of-semester exams written and marked by outside examiners, with no devices allowed for either group.

Results and limits

Across all students the ban raised grades by a small amount, about a third of the difference between a very good teacher and an average one over a school year, according to the authors. Attendance, taken from college records, did not change, so the authors read the gain as better attention rather than more time in class. earth.comEarth.comearth.comOpen source ↗

The gain was concentrated among students with earlier grades below the median and among first-year undergraduates. Students who were already doing well, postgraduates and students in STEM fields showed no measurable change. As a result, the spread of grades narrowed in the banned classrooms.

In surveys of 2,557 students, those under the ban became more supportive of phone restrictions. The surveys showed no change in felt distraction, perceived learning, well-being or motivation, and a mild rise in fear of missing out. Spot checks recorded less disruptive behavior in banned classrooms and less phone use by teachers, who were not subject to the rule. Observers, however, rated banned students as more distracted.

The authors note that the trial ran for one semester in one Indian state, covered lectures only and involved college students rather than younger children. Sungu said the ban is not a silver bullet and will not necessarily work everywhere. earth.comEarth.comearth.comOpen source ↗