Student Learning with Permissive and Restrictive Cell Phone Policies: A Classroom Experiment.

Based on Finn and Ledbetter’s (2013; 2014) work regarding classroom technology policies, this experimental study examined the implementation of a permissive and a restrictive cellular phone policy in two sections of a public speaking course, and the effect of these policies on students’ cognitive and affective learning. College students (N = 31) were assigned to the permissive or restrictive cellular phone policy condition based on the class section of public speaking for which they registered for the Fall, 2016 semester. Results indicated that while there were no differences in cognitive learning, students in the restrictive policy condition reported greater affective learning for the instructor than did students in the permissive policy condition. Theoretical and practical implications, based on this surprising finding, also were discussed.