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Exploring Wellbeing Related Issues Arising From the Unregulated Use of Screen-Based Technology During Breaktimes in an International Middle School Environment

The following study uses a design-thinking and mixed methods research approach to elicit students’ views on the use of screen-based technology during break periods. An interest in this area emerged due to a noticeable reduction, in recent years, in the number of students spending time in outdoor play areas during morning and afternoon breaks. The context of the study is Year 1 of the IB Middle Years Program in an International IB School, in the Netherlands, which implements an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning. The school is a 1:1 laptop, tablet, and ipad school, and the students, who are 11-12 years old, have unregulated open access to screen-based technology during lunch and break-times. This first part of the study, in line with the initial stages of the design-thinking process, involved initial exploratory interviews followed by whole-group surveys, and whole-group discussions to better understand the issue at hand. The findings indicate that students engage in a wide variety of screen-based activities during break-time, they have a range of opinions on how screen-based technology affects their well-being, and they hold differing perspectives on the need for the current levels of access to change. The students raised a number of questions surrounding the unregulated use of screen-based devices during break-times, and in a follow-up study they proceeded with design thinking approaches to generate practical solutions to the issues that were raised through this initial inquiry.