Phones impede learning: Evidence from a massive phone-free classroom experiment.

Lower-performing students in a large phone-free classroom experiment showed the most benefit, while higher-performing students also supported the policy.

• Why it matters: Phones are widely used in educational settings, but their impact on learning outcomes remains unclear, especially across different student performance levels.
• What they did: The study involved a massive classroom experiment where phones were removed, and student performance and attitudes were measured across various performance groups.
• The result: Lower-performing students gained the most from phone removal, and even higher-performing students expressed support for the phone-free policy, suggesting broad acceptance and potential benefits.