The Perceptions of Teachers, Parents and Students on the Effects of Mobile Phone Use on Student Learning in Tanzania

Abstract

The use of mobile phones enables learners to interact with vast resource materials to facilitate learning. Yet in Tanzania, mobile phones are strictly prohibited in many schools. This study examined parents’, teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the effects of students’ access to mobile phones on students learning performance. It was conducted in four selected secondary schools in Dodoma municipality. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed as data were collected from 280 respondents through questionnaire, interview schedule and documentary review. Cross-tabulation and Chi-square tests were among data analysis techniques employed in the understanding of different perceptions of respondents. The findings show that, parents and teachers agree that students with mobile phones perform poorly and misbehave more often than students without mobile phones. Also, in order to have value-based control system for appropriate use of mobile phones, providing proper education on mobile phone use and re-introducing censorship board to control the quality of contents on websites are recommended.

Keywords: mobile phone use in school, effects of mobile phone use on academic performance, school mobile phone use policy in Tanzania.