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Headteachers have warned the use of mobile phones at schools has become 'prolific', amid fears the technology is risking safety and hindering learning.

Hobart High School headteacher Jim Adams. Picture: Nick Butcher- Credit: Nick Butcher

Schools say growing numbers of students - including primary pupils - are now glued to their gadgets, prompting concerns over safeguarding, education and behaviour.

There are even fears that dependency on smartphones may be hampering efforts to settle students back into learning after the freedom of school breaks.

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It comes as the latest school in the region opts to enforce a ban on phones at school in a bid to tackle the issue.

Tim Gibbs, principal at Reepham High School, said he hoped the new rule would take pressure off students and parents, allow teachers to focus on learning and cut inappropriate behaviour.

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Pupils were formerly allowed to use phones at break and lunch times, but will now have to keep them in their bags all day.

'The use of phones is becoming prolific and inappropriate,' he said. 'We have found this year there have been several more cases than you would expect of teachers or other pupils being filmed secretly and put on social media, so we want to eliminate that risk.'

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He said there were benefits to using mobile phones as tools in lessons, and that the new ban would be on a trial basis.

With many of its pupils travelling in by bus, Mr Gibbs said it would be unfair to not allow students to bring phones at all. If they are spotted in school, they will be confiscated. Reepham College students will be unaffected.

Tim Gibbs, principal at Reepham High School. Picture: Reepham High School- Credit: Archant

'There's huge pressure on pupils to have one and it's got out of hand,' he said.

'I emailed parents at the end of term and it's been a really positive reaction so far.'

He said students sometimes brought in smartphones and broke them. In one case, he said, he had been asked to cover the costs of repair.

The school is far from the only one to make the move - we asked 26 headteachers their thoughts, and 46pc said they do not allow mobile phones in school.

Another 42pc said they did, but not in lessons, while 12pc said pupils were allowed some use in lessons.

And when we asked our readers whether they thought phones should be banned from school, 68pc of the 108 respondents said yes.

One form tutor said she had noticed students' eagerness to learn at the start of term dip in recent years.

'I have noticed over the last few years that more and more of our pupils are finding it harder to return to school,' she said.

A student using a smartphone. Photo: Lauren Hurley/PA Wire- Credit: PA

'Some have poor attendance in the first few weeks as they struggle to cope with the pressure of the new school year... After spending several weeks interacting with others via social media, the thought of facing hundreds of people in the flesh next week must be daunting.'

But rather than a distraction, one English teacher in mid Norfolk said mobile phones should be viewed instead as a learning tool.

'It comes down to trust,' she said. 'With younger pupils it may be difficult, but for older students it's about trust. They know they are only allowed to use phones when I say so.

'It seems a waste to have a £500 bit of kit in their pocket which they can't make the most of.'

She said smartphones could be used to take photographs of mind maps, do research, find definitions, check spellings and record quotes as a revision tool.

Jim Adams, headteacher at Hobart High School, in Loddon, agreed that mobile phones had learning value - but said the cons outweighed the benefits.

'At Hobart, students hand in mobile phones at the start of the day and the system works really well,' he said. 'But that's probably because it has always been that way.

'It is a really tough one to solve when it becomes a problem - the genie is now out of the bottle.

A pupil using their smartphone as a calculator during a lesson. Photo: David Jones/PA Wire- Credit: PA

'In previous schools I've had cases where a teacher was really unwell, and a student videoed that and put it online. Also, at another school, a teacher was struggling to control a class and a student filmed it and put it up too.'

He said that schools, along with much of society, had not 'anticipated the pace at which technology would grow'.

In our survey, 81pc of headteachers said they had seen a difference in pupils' mobile phone usage in recent years, with one saying there was a 'substantial increase'.

Abstract

Purpose

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The study seeks to further explore the hypothesised link between the increase in mobile phone ownership and use and the reported decline in adolescent smoking. Evidence for the link was gathered by examining perceptions of mobile phone use in the context of social identity and adolescent smoking.

Design/methodology/approach

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The study developed and employed a questionnaire‐based survey design asking a sample of student participants to characterise mobile phone users using a semantic differential scale. Data were also collected in relation to individual levels and patterns of mobile phone usage. The sample consisted of 172 undergraduate students studying in the Faculty of Health based in a UK university.

Findings

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Findings show first that mobile phone use is associated with a number of positive, desirable personal and social attributes relating to concepts of social identity and image formation, and that many of the attributes associated with mobile phone use are those commonly associated with smoking behaviour.

Research limitations/implications

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The association between mobile phone use and social identity theory provides a theoretical framework which helps explain the prolific rise in mobile phone use and can be used to support the viability of a link between a decline in levels of adolescent smoking and a rise in mobile phone ownership. Further evidence needs to be gathered which examines both behaviours in a single cohort of adolescents to establish the direct impact of mobile phone use on smoking behaviour in this particular group.

Practical implications

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Mobile phone use may serve as a displacement behaviour for smoking in adolescents and may provide an example of a positive – as opposed to a negative – addiction, given that it is a potential alternative to smoking in adolescents.

Originality/value

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The paper provides an examination of the health implications of a modern‐day social phenomenon. It draws on and draws together established theory and empirical work to further advance a previously proposed link between smoking and mobile phone use. Establishing such a link has important implications for health education and promotion activities.

Keywords

Citation

Cassidy, S. (2006), 'Using social identity to explore the link between a decline in adolescent smoking and an increase in mobile phone use', Health Education, Vol. 106 No. 3, pp. 238-250. https://doi.org/10.1108/09654280610658578

Download as .RIS

Publisher

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Prolific Mobile Phones Wireless

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Mobile Phones Definition

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited