On Sunday, the government and Education Minister Lotta Edholm (L) announced that they are tearing up the Swedish National Agency for Education’s strategy for digital tools, following critical referral responses from pediatricians and brain researchers.
The referral responses strongly criticized the strategy and suggest that children should read real books.
– The goal of the school system must be for knowledge to increase. Therefore, the previous strategy was misconstrued, says the Liberals’ school policy expert Isak Skogstad.
– The rhetoric is alarmist, replies internet researcher Elza Dunkels.
The debate about screen teaching in school has actually simmered for quite a while, but flared up properly after the international reading survey PIRLS showed a lack of reading skills among Swedish children.
– We have to make sure that children have real books because we know that many schools have switched to completely digital solutions. We know that this leads to poorer reading and that students become worse at reporting back what they have read. That development has gone far too far, said Lotta Edholm in P1 Morgon about the decision to dismantle the strategy.
Elza Dunkels, internet researcher and docent in educational work, thinks that the government’s decision is unfortunate on several levels.
– The rhetoric is very alarmist. It is not based on any research either, but it is now “in” to be anti-screens. What Edholm says that the ability to read has decreased due to digitization, there is no evidence for this.
She thinks there is an exaggerated fear of screens, and believes that you lose important tools if the screens are demolished.
– Since digitization is here, students must be given the opportunity to develop knowledge to handle digitization. For example, learning to read on a screen.
Dunkels, on the other hand, agrees with Edholm that many students lack the right teaching aids today.
– The purchases of learning materials are scandalous at many schools. It is clear that students need learning materials. But that has nothing to do with digitization.
Disagree with
Isak Skogstad is a school policy expert for the Liberals, and thinks it is good that the government chooses to go in a different direction.
– Knowledge is the important thing. The way there is secondary. If we are going to get more students to succeed in school, we have to look at which methods are good. Aiming to increase digitization in itself is the wrong way to go.
He believes that discussions about digitization are starting to solve the original problems at the wrong end.
– Discussing how much we should discuss screens is the wrong way. It’s like saying that 75 percent of students should walk to school no matter what, even if it’s better to cycle. The important thing is that the students pass school.