Polling professionals and experts on their opinions is perfectly reasonable to publish as a preliminary study on a subject
Comment on Study finds smartphone bans in Dutch schools improved focus
zapzap@lemmings.world 1 month ago
The “study” is that they asked teachers, “Hey, how’s it been going?” and the teachers answered, “I feel like my students are paying attention more now.”
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Sure, but it is not a study general public, like us on lemmy, should care about.
Yet you can already see people calling for phone bans…
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
It is absolutely relevant enough to be published publicly.
Yet you can already see people calling for phone bans…
Yes, because they should’ve been banned 10 years ago
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Based on what data?
zapzap@lemmings.world 1 month ago
It’s a sensible first step.
slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Who better to poll than teachers for this type of study? They are the ones in the trenches and can gauge the results.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
You shouldn’t poll anyone, instead look at test results. If there is better focus, it’ll improve learning outcomes like test scores, graduation rates, and reduces instances of cheating. IMO, if we poll anyone, it should be parents about how much assistance they give their kids (i.e. are they filling in the gaps in their education less?).
It’s nice that teachers think kids are paying more attention, but that only matters if kids are learning more.
slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
That’s another type of study that is also worthwhile. But the effects of distracted students on teachers and the classroom as a whole is also relevant.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Sure, I just don’t trust results from subjective studies, unless it’s tracking trends over time. So maybe if they had opinion polls like this before smartphones were a thing in classrooms, while smartphones were a thing, and after they were banned I’d trust the results somewhat. But if we’re just tracking an after-the-fact poll, it just feels like confirmation bias. I believe teachers have an incentive to overstate the impact of policies that give them more control, because they want to encourage more such policies, even if they aren’t effective at achieving tangible results.
So yeah, I distrust this type of study. I don’t think it’s necessarily worthless, I just don’t think many conclusions can be taken from it.
HollowNaught@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yes, but there’s a huge degree of bias whenever you ask people anything. Obviously teachers are going to think phones are detrimental to class focus, and thus they’re more likely to say their ban helped with that same focus
Same thing If you asked students, but reversed
zapzap@lemmings.world 1 month ago
Yeah, like, if you’re just gonna ask someone, they’d be the ones to ask.
MITM0@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Teachers can’t guage worth a damn
ClusterBomb@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Yeah, except science does not work like that. 😐
slackassassin@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Yes, it does. A subjective response can absolutely be an objective result.
ClusterBomb@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
This is not a demonstration and this does not qualify as a scientific proof. 🤷
They polled teachers. It ir like I polled religious and conclude that God exists because God speaks to most of the people I polled. This is not science, sorry not sorry.