Universal Journal of Educational Research Vol. 9(8), pp. 1599 - 1609
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090812
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Students' Phubbing in Rural University Classrooms: Are They Crossing Boundaries? Academics' Perceptions

Simon Christopher Fernandez ^1,*, John Percival Fernandez ^2
1 Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Walter Sisulu University, East London, South Africa
² Faculty of Business Science & Management, Walter Sisulu University, East London, South Africa

ABSTRACT

The current study sought to establish perceptions of lecturers and Peer Assistant Learning (PAL) Tutors on students' phubbing at a rural university in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study adopted the quantitative approach in which a survey was employed. A sample of 50 academics that consisted of 39 lecturers from a population of 71 and 11 PAL Tutors from a population of 14 voluntarily completed the survey. A structured 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was used for the data collection. The researchers captured the data manually into Statistical Package for Social Sciences and they were analysed using descriptive statistics. The study found that majority of lecturers and PAL Tutors had a negative perception on students' phubbing in classroom. It was strongly confirmed that students were addicted to cell phones. Around 0%-20% of the students were phubbing by doing different activities in classroom which was more enough for the whole learning and teaching to be spoiled. Overall, phubbing created a serious interruption to lecturers, PAL Tutors as well as the whole class and this implicated the study to highlight that students were crossing the boundary line. This study also provided recommendations to the educators and management to minimize phubbing inside classroom.

KEYWORDS
Phubbing, Smart Phone, Cell Phone, Educational Technology, Mobile Technology, Rural University Education, Lecturers, Peer Assisted Learning Tutors

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Simon Christopher Fernandez , John Percival Fernandez , "Students' Phubbing in Rural University Classrooms: Are They Crossing Boundaries? Academics' Perceptions," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 9, No. 8, pp. 1599 - 1609, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090812.

(b). APA Format:
Simon Christopher Fernandez , John Percival Fernandez (2021). Students' Phubbing in Rural University Classrooms: Are They Crossing Boundaries? Academics' Perceptions. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 9(8), 1599 - 1609. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2021.090812.