Teacher Perceptions of Cell Phone Use during the Instructional School Day

Abstract

As technology has advanced over time, cell phone usage has become a tool in an individual’s educational career. Previous research has shown that teacher perceptions have differed depending on the individual teacher (Baker et al., 2012; O’Bannon et al., 2014; Stachowski et al., 2020). Much of the research has suggested that teachers tend to have negative perceptions regarding cell phone use, especially during class time (O’Bannon et al., 2014). Several gaps in the existing literature have led to a need for an in-depth research study on the perceptions of cell phone use during the instructional school day.

The purpose of this case study was to capture teacher and administrator perceptions of cell phone use during the school day and further understand cell phone policies, in order to improve instruction with the implementation of an effective cell phone policy. The study was conducted in a Catholic high school setting in New York City. The researcher triangulated the data collected through personal interviews, focus groups, and an analysis of the cell phone policy within the one school setting. This study used Lev Vygotsky’s theory on Social Development, William Mayer, John Sweller, and Jacob Moreno’s E-Learning Theory, as well as Linda Harasim’s theory on Online Collaborative Learning to understand the phenomenon of cell phone use and how teachers and administration perceives them, with the hope to implement a policy that is most effective to educational growth.