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Eugene

(61,874 posts)
Mon Jun 10, 2013, 10:15 PM Jun 2013

Daily inspiring text messages fail to inspire US students to perform better

Source: The Guardian

Daily inspiring text messages fail to inspire US students to perform better

Richard Adams, education editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 June 2013 01.07 BST

A groundbreaking experiment that bombarded US high school students with inspiring text messages was found to be a success on all counts except one: it made no difference to how the students performed in school.

Roland Fryer, an economist at Harvard University, helped establish the experiment involving nearly 2,000 pupils at state schools in Oklahoma City.

The students were given free mobile phones in return for receiving daily texts written by a trend-setting advertising agency, encouraging them to stay in school and study for exams.

Many of the students correctly answered quiz questions showing they had paid attention to the messages – but the nine-month-long randomised field study failed to find any improvement in the students' academic results or attendance.

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/jun/11/text-messages-us-high-school-students
5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Daily inspiring text messages fail to inspire US students to perform better (Original Post) Eugene Jun 2013 OP
Attaboys failed to increase performance??!! mbperrin Jun 2013 #1
Quelle surprise! femmocrat Jun 2013 #2
Make it a great day, or not...the choice is yours. nt LWolf Jun 2013 #3
So Big Brother.... AnneD Jun 2013 #4
Let me get this straight... savebigbird Jun 2013 #5

mbperrin

(7,672 posts)
1. Attaboys failed to increase performance??!!
Tue Jun 11, 2013, 12:25 AM
Jun 2013

Whattashock!

I'm always amazed at what these frat boys dream up....

femmocrat

(28,394 posts)
2. Quelle surprise!
Tue Jun 11, 2013, 08:38 AM
Jun 2013

It's like "character education". All those words of the week don't actually improve behavior. And Red Ribbon Week doesn't really prevent future drug use. But we keep on trying, don't we!

savebigbird

(417 posts)
5. Let me get this straight...
Thu Jun 13, 2013, 08:23 PM
Jun 2013

They're offering kids free phones in exchange for reading text messages and then taking quizzes on them? So by giving students more tests (the text message quizzes), they're expecting the kids to improve performance on tests given in school? Hmmm...

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