Epson survey: Browsing is better than scrolling
October 24, 2024
A Europe-wide study commissioned by Epson shows that around half of teachers in Germany believe that printed teaching materials improve students’ reading skills.
According to this survey, 67% of teachers and 54% of parents wanted to see greater use of printed teaching materials such as textbooks and worksheets.
After extensive financial investments were made in schools’ IT in recent years as part of the Digital Pact, for example by purchasing laptops and tablets for many classes, teachers are now also raising concerns about this: around 40% are of the opinion that the excessive use of laptops and tablets can have a negative impact on the learning process. A majority of teachers and parents believe that various teaching objectives can be achieved noticeably better through a balanced use of different teaching materials, including traditional textbooks and worksheets.
Because some statistics show that children learn better when they use printed teaching materials rather than sitting in front of a screen, some European governments have already taken action. For example, Swedish Education Minister Lotta Edholm made the following statement on the subject in February 2024: “I see the best conditions for good development of basic reading and writing skills in (school) environments where both analogue and digital teaching materials are used.” At the same time, she announced that she would also start investing in paper-based textbooks again from 2024.
When asked about the effects of teaching with tablets and laptops, around 90% of teachers in the Epson survey reported at least one disadvantage. Almost 27% feared declining reading skills and 31% said that both cooperation and the willingness to discuss within the class suffered. Another 16% found that students were less likely to participate and another 16% saw a connection between the use of laptops/tablets in class and increasingly poor performance.
In contrast, around half of teachers and parents believe that teaching with printed textbooks and worksheets improves reading skills. 44% of teachers and 33% of parents also say that students can remember the content taught better. In addition, 41% of teachers and 49% of parents say that using paper materials also supports students’ different learning styles.
More than a quarter (27%) of teachers continue to believe that political decision-makers should ask themselves more whether purchasing laptops or tablets is actually a good option in every case. 42% of teachers also believe that politics is sometimes too far removed from everyday school life to always be able to take appropriate measures. Teachers’ concerns about the procurement of teaching materials by the public sector should definitely be addressed more in the future.
Many parents share these views and cite, for example, that they often argue with their children about spending too much time in front of screens. Almost two thirds (62%) say that it is more difficult to control screen time at home when laptops or tablets are used very often at school – this is made even more difficult when homework has to be done online.
For all these reasons, almost half of all parents (46%) and teachers (43%) would like to see a more balanced use of the various teaching materials in schools, because ultimately the primary goal is to improve the teaching and learning process and not to enforce the use of IT technology in schools. According to the views of both groups surveyed, one possible solution is to create a hybrid form of teaching in which both digital and analogue resources are combined.
Education expert Sarah Henkelmann-Hillebrandt from Epson Deutschland GmbH explained: “Our study clearly shows that parents and teachers want a balanced weighting of different teaching materials, because the results speak for themselves. IT technology is of course an important part of our lives and it is also very important that future workers know how to handle digital media. However, the use of IT must be carefully planned to ensure that digital media supports work and does not distract from it.”
Categories : World Focus
Tags : Education Epson Parents Printed Materials Printing Survey Teachers Teaching
