Can Phones Explain PISA?
17 hours ago
- The decline in PISA reading scores is often blamed on smartphones, but this fails to explain patterns like US and England improving after 2012.
- East Asian countries and Estonia/England maintain high scores due to rigorous education systems, not lack of technology.
- Blaming phones exculpates poor education policies, such as abandoning knowledge-rich curricula and phonics.
- Modern focus on generic reading skills (e.g., finding main idea) leads to hasty reading and neglects deep comprehension built on domain knowledge and cultural norms.
- The loss of enforced book reading in schools is more detrimental to reading habits than home environment with phones or TV.
- Discipline and structured reading programs are essential; examples include Mississippi improving with phonics while Oregon declined without it.