Problematic Mobile Phone Use in Secondary Mathematics Classrooms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65638/2978-882X.2025.01.08Keywords:
Conceptual understanding, Distraction, Policy, Problematic mobile phone use, Procedural fluencyAbstract
Mobile phones have become increasingly more commonplace in everyday life, resulting in unprecedented student distraction and behavioral addiction in the classroom environment. Further, problematic use of mobile phones has been shown to be closely related to cognitive health and wellbeing, particularly in terms of anxiety, depression, academic stress, and psychological disequilibrium. Since the inception of the smartphone in the early 2000s, increases in mobile phone use have coincided with students’ difficulty in meeting increasingly rigorous mathematical standards. Therefore, this quantitative study sought to determine whether a significant relationship exists between Problematic Mobile Phone Use and two cognitive wellbeing outcomes of procedural fluency and conceptual understanding. A compound theoretical framework offers insight into germinal and current theories based on the established key tenets of behavior, distraction, and policy. The descriptive correlational design assessed potential relationships between problematic mobile phone use and these two cognitive wellbeing outcomes. A stratified sample of educational leaders from five school sites participated in the Student Mobile Phone Use Survey (SMPUS), yielding data about leaders’ impressions of students’ Problematic Mobile Phone Use. Results from statistical tests showed that problematic use showed a significant negative association with students’ conceptual understanding, but no significant association with their procedural fluency. Given that problematic phone use is closely tied to students’ cognitive wellbeing, the results of this study have implications beyond mathematical proficiency to include all aspects of a student’s cognitive and emotional health. Recommendations to practitioners include formulating focus groups and professional learning communities around mobile phone policy and instructional development to address and support students’ cognitive wellbeing.
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