Impact of the learning environment and the use of digital tools in everyday life on key skills and competence development

Expected Outcome

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Provide analyses of the impact of digital tools in everyday life on wellbeing and how children learn.
• Provide analyses and evidence-based recommendations on how to provide opportunities for high quality education that uses digital technologies in ways that support the wellbeing of the school community (students, teachers and school leaders).

Scope

Digital devices and tools are an integral part in the lives of children and teenagers as they grow. There is discussion about the impact of the use of digital tools in everyday life on children’s wellbeing (cognitive, emotional, social) and development, but the evidence is often piecemeal[1] Proposals should investigate the impact that the expansion and normalisation of children’s use of digital technologies (including generative AI) in everyday life has on their learning, at a time in their lives when literacy and numeracy skills are developing, and during adolescence.

Proposals may select different target groups to investigate how intersecting factors influence children’s experiences with digital tools, paying a particular attention to age, gender, disabilities, digital exclusion of marginalised groups, and socio-economic status. In this context, proposals should investigate how the school learning environment can support learning and identify effective interventions to support children’s social emotional and academic needs. Proposals should focus on primary and/ or secondary general compulsory education, and they could choose to address one or several age groups.

While educational institutions cannot act in isolation, students spend thousands of hours within buildings, and the same holds for teachers and school leaders. Sustainable Development Goal (4.a.) emphasises the importance of physical learning environment in education facilities. Proposals could investigate the impact of learning environments on education outcomes and how its design responds to changes in teaching and learning.

Proposals should propose methods that address the complex nature of the topic under study, the existing data and the rapid changes in the technological landscape. Proposals are encouraged to use mixed methods approaches, and deepen inter- and transdisciplinary research in education (including from SSH disciplines), involving multiple perspectives, with the aim to improve learning and educational settings. Proposals can choose on which aspect of student well-being (cognitive, emotional, social) and skill development they focus. Proposals should include the voice of children and young people through active and meaningful participation and other relevant stakeholders as part of the data collection.

Where applicable, proposals should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud, as well as data from relevant Data Spaces. Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of this topic is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

[1] For example, mobile phones or smartphones could have a potentially unprecedented impact on children’s development, as the frequency of engagement is likely to be high. Possible impacts include for example cognitive overload, increased distraction, altering memory and learning patterns, impact on sleep duration and sleep quality, on wellbeing among adolescent girls and boys, on wider social activities, such as sport or cultural activities, or on leisure. There are also concerns that excessive screen time can impact children’s social and emotional development, leading to debates about the quality of their interactions. Recent findings from the PISA survey highlight a negative correlation between leisurely digital device use at school and academic performance.