BBCPERSIAN — broadcast
20261010 040000 UTC
131 transcript segments
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[00:15:52] If income remains constant but food prices rise day by
[00:15:56] day, how do nutrition specialists redesign the family's
[00:16:00] food basket to minimize health
[00:16:04] risks? Is creatine really
[00:16:06] as beneficial as they say? Does it have
[00:16:32] What has happened to Generation Z? These are the results
[00:16:36] of the largest test.
[00:16:53] When I see the charts, I get sad because I know many people's
[00:16:57] first reaction will be to say that Gen Z
[00:17:00] is less intelligent or doesn't try. So,
[00:17:03] is a generation truly becoming less intelligent?
[00:17:09] These data belong to the Program for International Student
[00:17:12] Assessment, or PISA. A program that started
[00:17:16] 25 years ago. This test is held every three
[00:17:20] years, and now over 750,000 teenagers in 91
[00:17:23] countries and regions participate in the same test.
[00:17:27] Of course, this test is not an IQ test. Its
[00:17:30] goal is to see how much 15-year-olds can
[00:17:34] use science, math, and reading skills.
[00:18:52] Meanwhile, a theory by an American neuroscientist quickly went viral online.
[00:18:55] Why? What happened? What changed around 2012? What caused
[00:18:59] school education to be separated from cognitive development?
[00:19:02] The answer cannot be the school, because the school was the same as before.
[00:19:06] It cannot be biology,
[00:19:13] which we use in schools for education.
[00:19:16] His theory is that replacing textbooks
[00:19:19] and notebooks with tablets and laptops
[00:19:23] can directly affect test results.
[00:19:26] Also, some scientific evidence shows that compared to reading
[00:19:30] a book or writing on paper, using a screen
[00:19:33] may interfere with the brain's process
[00:19:36] of recording and memorizing information.
[00:19:40] The director of the PISA study says, "Perhaps
[00:19:43] we are now seeing the effect of this in the results."
[00:19:47] A reality that everyone sees but talks less about is
[00:19:51] technology itself. If we saw the same decline in all subjects,
[00:19:55] perhaps we would say that the quality of education has decreased. But
[00:19:58] that is not the issue. The sharpest decline is in reading
[00:20:02] skills, specifically in areas linked to the digital world.
[00:20:06] This decline in reading scores is one of the biggest
[00:20:09] declines ever recorded by researchers. The extent
[00:20:13] of this decline is almost equivalent to losing a
[00:20:17] full year of education. To be honest, the decline in reading
[00:20:21] skills in my own generation really worries me. I see
[00:20:24] this particularly among younger teenagers and Generation Z,
[00:20:28] those who never seemed to enjoy reading.
[00:20:31] This issue is frightening to me because reading is the
[00:20:35] foundation of almost all other subjects. Given
[00:20:39] all this, we might be tempted to blame
[00:20:42] technology in schools for all the score reductions,
[00:20:45] but like the COVID story, it's not that
[00:20:49] simple. The effect of screens on children depends on how
[00:20:53] they are used, what activities they replace,
[00:20:57] and even the child themselves. What's important is to see what
[00:21:01] we do on these screens and why we use them. The real
[00:21:04] effect should be sought there. This is another
[00:21:07] PISA chart. The chart shows how many hours students
[00:21:11] spend per day at school using digital tools for
[00:21:14] recreation and what this has to do with their science
[00:21:18] scores. The connection is quite clear. Students who
[00:21:22] spent a lot of time in school using technology for recreational
[00:21:25] purposes, such as social media or games, had
[00:21:28] lower scores. However,
[00:21:32] when we look at educational use of technology in school,
[00:21:36] the picture changes. Students who used
[00:21:39] digital tools for learning scored higher compared
[00:21:43] to those who did not use these tools. And if
[00:21:46] we look at Singapore, students in this country
[00:21:50] are among the best in the world in all subjects.
[00:21:54] The interesting point is that they also say
[00:21:57] they use technology in the classroom more than
[00:22:01] almost any other country. This very fact shows
[00:22:04] that the situation is not that simple.
[00:22:08] The director of this research says that different
[00:22:11] countries have incorporated technology into their educational
[00:22:14] systems in different ways. Many educational systems still
[00:22:18] lack the necessary capability and infrastructure
[00:22:21] for purposeful, conscious, and evidence-based use of
[00:22:25] technology. The reality is that it's much easier and simpler
[00:22:29] to distribute tablets among students and let them occupy themselves
[00:22:32] with them. But we shouldn't forget that the life
[00:22:36] of a 15-year-old is not limited to
[00:22:39] school. Most of them grow up in a world
[00:22:43] where digital tools are present in all
[00:22:46] its parts. Even if you completely ban technology in
[00:22:50] schools, students will still have access to mobile phones,
[00:22:53] the internet, and social networks when they get home.
[00:22:57] They might spend a whole day at school without technology,
[00:23:00] and then when they get home, if they want, they can spend
[00:23:04] 8 consecutive hours on social
[00:23:06] networks. In the next PISA test,
[00:23:10] a new section will be dedicated to how 15-year-old
[00:23:13] teenagers use social networks and artificial intelligence,
[00:23:17] but we have to wait until 2031.
[00:23:21] In the meantime, scientists are trying
[00:23:23] to understand what effect this technology
[00:23:27] has on all our brains, not just teenagers. In
[00:23:31] the past few years, concern about the effect of screens
[00:23:34] on concentration has increased, especially after the spread
[00:23:38] of new forms of content like TikTok videos, content
[00:23:42] designed to attract attention. However, scientific evidence
[00:23:45] regarding the direct effects of these technologies on our
[00:23:49] attention and concentration is still limited.
[00:23:52] Probably one of the reasons is that this phenomenon
[00:23:56] is relatively new, and we haven't had enough time
[00:23:59] to study it in detail. In fact, many questions remain unanswered,
[00:24:03] including this one: Does this issue only concern Generation
[00:24:07] Z, or not? I think if a survey
[00:24:10] were conducted among adults from different generations
[00:24:14] who regularly use social media, similar trends
[00:24:17] would probably be seen. It seems that the problem
[00:24:21] of maintaining concentration is not exclusive to Generation
[00:24:24] Z; other generations also struggle with it. While
[00:24:28] all of us are still adapting to digital life, it's
[00:24:31] not bad to go back to those same charts.
[00:24:35] What do these charts really tell us about
[00:24:38] Generation Z? Perhaps the only thing that can be said
[00:24:41] with certainty is that alongside the decline in these
[00:24:45] scores, the world of Generation Z has also been changing
[00:24:49] rapidly. Part of this trend may be related to the use of
[00:24:52] screens, but other factors can also play a role,
[00:24:56] from changes in the educational system to the COVID
[00:25:00] pandemic and even mental health issues among young people,
[00:25:04] which can affect their academic performance. The reality is
[00:25:07] that we are facing a combination of factors. Most likely,
[00:25:11] none of them alone can explain a global trend like
[00:25:14] what we see today.
[00:30:21] Headlines.
[00:30:21] Russia's offer to help
[00:30:27] end the war between Iran and America.
[00:30:30] Pezeshkian told Putin.