Research + News | Topic: Academic Performance

How Is Digital Text Affecting Student Comprehension?

Researchers found that digital reading was faster but less effective as a tool for helping students process and learn information. Read more from the Growing Leaders’ blog post here.

This Simple Solution To Smartphone Addiction Is Now Used In Over 600 U.S. Schools

Graham Dugoni, 31, started Yondr to remind people what it’s like to live phone-free. Read the article here.

Laptops Are Great. But Not During A Lecture Or A Meeting.

Step into any college lecture hall and you are likely to find a sea of students typing away at open, glowing laptops as the professor speaks. Read the article here.

A Good Night’s Sleep A Better Alternative To Teen Nap Clubs

A look at lack of sleep, teen naps clubs, and the pressures high schoolers face, especially the pressure of getting accepted to college. Read the article here.

When College Kids Surf the Web in Class, Grades Fall

Study finds the habit hurts academics, and supports the notion of leaving laptops at home. Read the article here.

Heavy Social Media Use Correlated With Lower Math, Reading, Science Skills

All those hours spent scrolling social media may be hurting teenagers’ skills in math, reading, and science, while video games are actually associated with higher ability levels, according to a new study of 12,004 Australian high school students published in the International Journal of Communication. Read the full article here.

Heavy Internet Use Leads to School Burnout in Teens

Researchers at the University of Helsinki and Department of Psychology have found that excessive Internet use — essentially bordering on addiction — leads to school burnout in teens. Read the article here.

Kids Who Text and Watch TV Simultaneously Likely To Underperform At School

The more time teenagers spend splitting their attention between various devices such as their phones, video games or TV, the lower their test scores in math and English tend to be. Read the article here.

Study Finds Video Games May Have Positive Effects on Kids

Researchers at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues at Paris Descartes University and a number of other European universities assessed the association between the amount of time spent playing video games and children’s mental health and cognitive and social skills. They found that playing video games may have positive effects on young children.

Read the full article here.

Social Media Holds Weight in College Admissions

College admissions counselors are checking the social media accounts of applicants. Sometimes what they find positively impacts the applicant, but often the impact is negative.

Read the full article here.