SoylentNews

hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Sweden is bringing back books amid declining test scores [arstechnica.com]:

In 2023, the Swedish government announced that the country's schools would be going [sciencedirect.com] back to basics [theguardian.com], emphasizing skills such as reading and writing, particularly in early grades. After mostly being sidelined, physical books are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and students are learning to write the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a pencil or pen, on sheets of paper. The Swedish government also plans to make schools cellphone-free [swedenherald.com] throughout the country.

Educational authorities have been investing heavily. Last year alone, the education ministry allocated [thetimes.com] $83 million to purchase textbooks and teachers' guides. In a country with about 11 million people, the aim [government.se] is for every student to have a physical textbook for each subject. The government also put $54 million towards the purchase of fiction and non-fiction books for students.

These moves represent a dramatic pivot from previous [www.ri.se] decades, during which Sweden—and many other nations—moved away [bbc.co.uk] from physical books in favor [world-education-blog.org] of tablets and digital resources in an effort to prepare students for life in an online world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Nordic country's efforts have sparked a debate [sciencedirect.com] on the role of digital technology in education, one that extends well beyond the country's borders. US parents in districts that have adopted digital technology to a great extent may be wondering if educators will reverse course, too.

So why did Sweden pivot? In an email to Undark, Linda Fälth, a researcher in teacher education at Linnaeus University, wrote that the "decision to reinvest in physical textbooks and reduce the emphasis on digital devices" was prompted by several factors, including questions around whether the digitalization of classrooms had been evidence-based. "There was also a broader cultural reassessment," Fälth wrote. "Sweden had positioned itself as a frontrunner in digital education, but over time concerns emerged about screen time, distraction, reduced deep reading, and the erosion of foundational skills such as sustained attention and handwriting."

Fälth noted that proponents of reform believe that "basic skills—especially reading, writing, and numeracy—must be firmly established first, and that physical textbooks are often better suited for that purpose."

[...] Swedish officials emphasize that digital technology isn't being removed from schools altogether. Rather, digital aids [government.se] "should only be introduced in teaching at an age when they encourage, rather than hinder, pupils' learning." Achieving digital competence [ncee.org] remains an important objective, particularly in higher grades.

[...] If US educational leaders were to consult their Swedish colleagues, the advice they'd likely get is not to remove digital technology whole cloth. "The goal is recalibration rather than reversal," wrote Fälth. This was echoed in a statement sent to Undark by the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research: The "Swedish government believes that digitalization is fundamentally important and beneficial, but the use of digital tools in schools must be carried out carefully and thoughtfully."

In other words, the objective is not to reject digitalization. It's more nuanced than that. The goal is to judiciously establish boundaries [linkedin.com] around technology's selective and sequential use over stages of a pupil's educational development. This means introducing digital technology at later ages after basic reading and other skills have been achieved.

Original Submission