Source: The Mercury, 25 November, 1996, p.1 Source: The Mercury, 25 November, 1996, p.1
WATCHING television for up to two hours a day has no impact on school stu- dents' academic ability, a new study shows. And junior secondary school students who bury themselves in books for five hours each night are likely to perform poorly at school. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study, involving 14,000 stu- dents across Australia, chal- lenges modern urban myths about the negative effects of watching "the box". Key results included: * Students who watched TV or videos for up to two hours a day posted similar maths test scores to stu- dents who watched none.
FROM PAGE 1 * Students who watched TV or videos for about three hours achieved maths scores only marginally lower than those of their non-watching classmates. * But students on a diet of five hours' television a day per- formed significantly worse. The research in Australia was conducted by a team set up by the Australian Council of Edu- cation Research. Its findings indicated that all work and no play made poor students, including: * Students who tackled five hours' homework a night had significantly lower science test scores than students who spent about two hours on homework. * Between one and two hours' homework appeared to be the most baneficial. * Reading for pleasure each day was linked to high test marks.
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