Thanks for providing some much needed context to these charts. While I think it’s clear at this point that there is probably some sort of negative correlation between smart phones and academic performance, it feels like it’s become a popular scapegoat for every issue. When in doubt, blame the phones! Then we don’t have to do any work to see if there might be deeper issues at play. Appreciate you bringing more nuance to the table
Jackie! Thank you for writing about this. We’ve been scratching our heads about these PISA scores since they were released. Spain (and in particular, our state of Catalonia) didn’t do very well. But we went through one of the toughest lockdowns outside of China, and the kids were back in school with both teachers and children wearing masks for well over a year. I can’t imagine a world where this didn’t contribute to the drop in the scores. Did you get any indication as to whether that was factored into to the scoring?
(Also, congrats on the baby! I’ve got our podcast episode almost finished, will be going out in the new year.)
Thanks! I live in New Zealand and similar discussions were on our national news about declining scores, and our new government's policy to ban phones in school. From the graphs I saw, New Zealand's "decline" tracked with the OECD average - so not the cause for national angst portrayed. Wish there had been some analysis like yours given.
Thanks for providing some much needed context to these charts. While I think it’s clear at this point that there is probably some sort of negative correlation between smart phones and academic performance, it feels like it’s become a popular scapegoat for every issue. When in doubt, blame the phones! Then we don’t have to do any work to see if there might be deeper issues at play. Appreciate you bringing more nuance to the table
Jackie! Thank you for writing about this. We’ve been scratching our heads about these PISA scores since they were released. Spain (and in particular, our state of Catalonia) didn’t do very well. But we went through one of the toughest lockdowns outside of China, and the kids were back in school with both teachers and children wearing masks for well over a year. I can’t imagine a world where this didn’t contribute to the drop in the scores. Did you get any indication as to whether that was factored into to the scoring?
(Also, congrats on the baby! I’ve got our podcast episode almost finished, will be going out in the new year.)
Thanks! I live in New Zealand and similar discussions were on our national news about declining scores, and our new government's policy to ban phones in school. From the graphs I saw, New Zealand's "decline" tracked with the OECD average - so not the cause for national angst portrayed. Wish there had been some analysis like yours given.