New report makes the case for Canadian schools to return to using textbooks in classrooms  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CALGARY – A new report released today by the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy reveals how switching from traditional textbooks to screens in Canadian schools is having a devastating impact on student achievement. 

In Children and Screens: It is time to bring back the textbook, Aristotle Foundation senior fellow Paul Bennett urges educators to press pause on edtech and return textbooks to the centre of classroom learning. 

Key Quotes 

• “Traditional textbooks have been pushed to the margins or replaced entirely by digital platforms. In their place screen-based modes such as laptops, tablets, and mobile devices now dominate daily teaching and learning. Despite the billions spent, there is little convincing evidence that digital tools have improved student achievement. In fact, there appears to be a negative relationship.” 

• “The reasons for the decline are becoming clearer: schools often adopt technology without a coherent strategy, teachers receive limited training, and students are easily distracted by games, messaging, and endless online content. The result is a classroom where attention is fragmented, and sustained learning is next to impossible.” 

• “In the United States, 99 percent of teachers report that their schools provide devices to students, who spend an average of 98 minutes per day on screens in class. Students are exposed to dozens of digital tools each year, yet academic performance declines, and students are ‘gaming and scrolling’ their way through class.”  

• “Students tend to learn and absorb more from textbooks than a profusion of screen-delivered content. Effectively organized textbooks do something the digital world cannot—provide a package of information, properly integrated and in a form that gives space to think.”  

• “The world’s highest performing education systems have not abandoned textbooks. Countries such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan continue to provide standardized textbooks to 10-year-old students.”  

“Screens and overdependence on edtech are causing harm to the current generation of students,” Bennett concludes. “Leading educators in Sweden and the UK are right: It is time to bring back the textbook.”  

The full report is available at aristotlefoundation.org. 

Media Contact 

Dami Itabiyi  
Media and Marketing Coordinator  
Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy  
Dami@aristotlefoundation.org  
403-401-3828