Variations in student achievement on the CIL scale

• Variations across countries
  • Student CIL varied considerably across ICILS countries.
• Factors associated with variations in CIL
  • Higher socioeconomic status was associated with higher CIL proficiency both within and across countries.
  • Female students had higher CIL scale scores in all but two countries.
  • Students who spoke the language of the CIL assessment (which was also the language of instruction) also performed better on it.
  • Multiple regression techniques showed that the following variables had statistically significant positive associations with CIL in most countries: students’ gender (female compared to male), students’ expected educational attainment, parental educational attainment, parental occupational status, number of books in the home, and ICT home resources.
  • Student experience of computer use and their frequency of computer use at home were positively associated with CIL scores in most countries.
  • CIL achievement was also positively associated with basic ICT self-efficacy but not with advanced ICT self-efficacy.
• Student use of ICT
  • Almost all ICILS students reported that they were experienced users of computers and had access to them at home and at school. On average across the ICILS countries, more than one third of the Grade 8 students said they had been using computers for 7 or more years, with a further 29% reporting that they had been using computers for between 5 and 7 years.
  • Students across the ICILS countries reported using computers more frequently at home than elsewhere.
• Computer use outside school
  • ICILS indicated that students were making widespread and frequent use of digital technologies when outside school.
  • Students tended to use the Internet for social communication and exchanging information, computers for recreation, and computer utilities for school work and other purposes.
  • Students also reported using computer utilities (applications) outside school. Generally across the ICILS countries, the most extensive weekly use of computer utilities involved “creating or editing documents” (28% of students).
• Use of ICT for school work
  • Cross-nationally, just under half (45%) of the ICILS students, on average, were using computers to “prepare reports or essays” at least once a week.
  • A similar extent of use for “preparing presentations” (44%) was recorded.
  • The subject area in which computers were most frequently being used was information technology or computer studies (56%).

Teacher and school use of ICT

• Teacher use of ICT
  • Teachers were making extensive use of ICT in their schools (three out of every five teachers said they used computers at least once a week when teaching).
  • In general, teachers were confident about their ability to use a variety of computer applications; two thirds of them expressed confidence in their ability to use these for assessing and monitoring student progress.
  • Teachers recognized the positive aspects of using ICT in teaching and learning at school, especially with respect to accessing and managing information; a substantial majority of the ICILS teachers were using ICT in their teaching.
  • According to the ICILS teachers, the utilities most frequently used in their respective reference classes were those concerned with word processing, presentations, and computer-based information resources, such as websites, wikis, and encyclopedias.
  • Teachers’ emphasis on developing CIL in students was positively associated with teachers’ ICT-self efficacy, their positive views of ICT, and the amount of collaboration regarding ICT use teachers reported in their schools. The combination of these three factors together accounted for 23% of the variance among countries that met the ICILS teacher sampling requirements.
• School-based ICT provision and use
  • There were substantial differences across countries in the number of students per available computer in a school.
  • Computers in schools were most often located in computer laboratories and libraries; however, there were differences among countries as to whether schools had portable class-sets of computers on offer or whether students brought their own computers to class.
  • ICT coordinators reported a range of impediments to teaching and learning ICT. In general, the coordinators rated personnel and teaching support issues as more problematic than resource issues.