Impact of classroom phubbing on teachers who face phubbing during lectures

Abstract

Advancement in education technology tried hard to utilize modern technology in classrooms in order to enhance learning, improve learning environment and it revolutionized the classrooms. In this technological advancement, one of the common distractions during lectures nowadays is use of smartphones in classrooms during lectures. Teachers often find students using smartphones during their lectures. Such kind of use of smartphone during the lectures is termed as classroom phubbing. This phenomenon is nowadays very common in everyday life and it intrude in classrooms and influences teachers as well as learning environment. This study tried to understand the influence of Phubbing on teachers during lecture, their emotional responses, and their attitudes towards phubbing. The sample comprised 50 university teachers (25 females and 25 males) and 300 students from their classes (120 females and 180 males). The age of the teachers ranges from 30 to 60 years old in the study group and the students age group ranges from 20 to 26 years old. The study used mixed design method in which first phubbing survey was used with students and was followed by interviews of the teachers. The phubbing survey was analyzed by using frequency analysis method and the interviews are analyzed by thematic analysis, and common themes was interpreted accordingly. The study interviewed teachers regarding the phenomenon and the interviews was guided by the survey questionnaire in order to understand there emotional and attitudinal response towards classroom phubbing. The results of this study revealed that around 41% of students use smartphones at least once during the lectures for either using social networking sites or checking messages on WhatsApp or just for internet surfing which was not at all related to their courses. Such behavior of students in reverse had a strong impact on the teachers and the teachers evaluate themselves according to their age group as younger teachers evaluate their lecture performance negatively and elder age group teachers consider it as a disrespect but in both cases, it had impact on learning process.