Factors Influencing the Impact of ICT-use on Students’ Learning

Education policy documents in many countries have placed emphases on promoting the use of ICT in teaching and learning, often in conjunction with curriculum reform initiatives that aim to enhance the development of 21st century skills such as collaborative inquiry and collaboration. Is there evidence that ICT-use actually contributes to the development of 21st century skills? Does the pedagogical approach adopted by the teacher matter? Do the teacher’s technical and pedagogical competence in using ICT to support teaching and learning relate in any way to the impact of ICT-use on students’ learning outcomes? These are the questions that will be explored in this paper through a secondary analysis of the SITES 2006 data. The teacher survey in SITES 2006 was designed to provide a variety of indicators related to pedagogy and ICT, including: (1) teachers’ perceived impacts of ICT-use on their students, (2) teachers pedagogical orientations for their overall practices as well as for their ICT-using practices, and (3) teachers’ self-reported technical and pedagogical competence in using ICT for teaching and learning. Multilevel analysis found that the general pedagogical orientation of the teacher has a much stronger relationship with the perceived impact of ICT-use on students’ learning compared to the more specifically ICT-related pedagogical orientations. Further, the self-perceived pedagogical ICT-use competence of the teacher was an even stronger predictor for the perceived impact of ICT-use on students. The implications of these findings are discussed.