Monitoring ICT use for students’ learning outcomes in secondary schools – The school leaders’ perspective in a European comparison

Author(s):

Julia Gerick(presenting / submitting)Birgit Eickelmann

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 01, Implementing ICT in Educational Practice - The Influence of Teachers and School Leaders

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-23

13:15-14:45

Room:

OB-H1.49 (ALE 2)

Chair:

Ed Smeets

Contribution

The successful implementation of ICT as an important condition for promoting students’ digital literacy is a great and ongoing challenge for schools (e.g. Eickelmann, Bos & Gerick, 2015). In this context, the school leader plays a decisive role (e.g. Dexter, 2008; Ottestad, 2013). School leaders can, for example, provide resources and initiate the development of shared visions and goals which can support the use of ICT in schools and the development of students’ competences using ICT (e.g. Fraillon, Schulz & Ainley, 2013; Tondeur et al., 2008). In successful schools, those shared goals are integrated into relevant school-wide concepts. At that, school concepts, which focus on pedagogical more than on technical aspects, can be considered an effective measure of quality development in schools (e.g. Gerick, Bos & Eickelmann, 2015) and provide an instrument for the purpose of monitoring to which extent the school’s goals, such as the promotion of students’ competent use of ICT, have been realized in teaching and learning (e.g. Eickelmann & Schulz-Zander, 2006). School leadership as well as school goals and monitoring practices can be seen as a relevant factor at school/classroom level in the theoretical framework of the IEA International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS 2013) with particular importance for school processes.

In this context, the question arises – first of all – whether schools in Europe do have such goals with regard to the use of ICT and ICT-related student competences. In addition, there is still little evidence available about whether such goals are monitored within schools. Focusing on a European perspective, the following research questions are addressed in this contribution:

How important is the use of ICT in secondary schools in Europe promoting different ICT-related outcomes, for example for developing students’ computer skills, from the school leaders’ perspective?
Do school leaders in secondary schools in Europe indicate that there is a monitoring whether teachers use ICT to achieve different ICT-related learning outcomes and if so, which methods of monitoring are used?

Method

The research questions are answered by conducting secondary analyses of data taken from the international comparative IEA-study of ICILS 2013. The study provides extensive background data on the acquisition of students’ computer and information literacy in the 21 participating educational systems worldwide (Fraillon, Schulz, Ainley, Friedman & Gebhardt, 2014). Focusing on a European perspective, the school leaders’ data of all 12 European countries participating in the study are included in order to answer the above-mentioned research questions. The school leaders’ rating of four ICT-related outcomes will subsequently be focused: (1) Developing students’ computer skills (2) Using ICT for facilitating students’ responsibility for their own learning, (3) Developing students’ understanding and skills relating to the safe and appropriate use of ICT and (4) Developing students’ proficiency in accessing and using information with ICT. Three ways of monitoring these aspects are analyzed: (1) through reviewing lesson plans, (2) through teacher self-evaluation and (3) through observing classrooms (for more detailed information on the items applied in ICILS 2013 cf. Jung & Carstens, 2015). As a methodological approach, descriptive statistics are conducted with the IEA IDB Analyzer (Rutkowski et al., 2010) taking into account the complex data structure of ICILS 2013.

Expected Outcomes

The results regarding research question 1 show that across all European countries participating in ICILS 2013, school leaders rate the use of ICT in secondary schools as very important for ICT-related outcomes, particularly for “developing students’ computer skills” and “developing students’ understanding and skills relating to safe and appropriate use of ICT” In this context, no differences between countries with a high level of students’ computer and information literacy (e.g. the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland) and countries with a lower level of students’ CIL (e.g. Lithuania, Turkey) become obvious. With regard to research question 2 it can be shown that across all European countries, most secondary school leaders indicate that there is a monitoring whether teachers use ICT to achieve different ICT-related learning outcomes. Particularly the ICT-related outcome of “developing students’ computer skills” is evaluated. However, major differences between the intensity and the ways of monitoring whether teachers use ICT to achieve different ICT related learning outcomes become obvious. In the Slovak Republic for example, the use of ICT for the four above-mentioned ICT-related learning outcomes are especially monitored through the review of lesson plans, in Turkey particularly through self-evaluation of teachers and in Poland notably through observing classrooms. The contribution will elaborate on these findings and results will be discussed in the context of different policies of ICT in teaching and learning in European countries and with regard to the importance of promoting students’ CIL for the European countries’ transition into the digital age.

References

Dexter, S. (2008). Leadership for IT in schools. In J. Voogt & G. Knezek (Eds.), International handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education (pp. 543–554). New York: Springer. Eickelmann, B., Bos, W. & Gerick, J. (2015). Wie geht es weiter? Zentrale Befunde der Studie ICILS 2013 und mögliche Handlungs- und Entwicklungsperspektiven für Einzelschulen. SchulVerwaltung NRW. Eickelmann, B. & Schulz-Zander, R. (2006). Schulentwicklung mit digitalen Medien – nationale Entwicklungen und Perspektiven. In W. Bos, H. G. Holtappels, H. Pfeiffer, H.-G. Rolff und R. Schulz-Zander. Jahrbuch der Schulentwicklung. Band 14. Weinheim: Juventa, S. 277-309. Fraillon, J., Ainley, J., Schulz, W., Friedman, T. & Gebhardt, E. (2014). Preparing for life in a digital age. The IEA International Computer and Information Literacy Study international report. Springer. Fraillon, J., Schulz, W. & Ainley, J. (2013). International Computer and Information Literacy Study: Assessment framework. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Gerick, J., Eickelmann, B. & Bos, W. (2015). Vermittlung digitaler Kompetenzen als neues Handlungsfeld für Schulen und Schulleitungen. Zentrale Ergebnisse der internationalen Schulleistungsstudie ICILS 2013. In Schulleitung und Schulentwicklung, E 2.71. Stuttgart: Raabe. Jung, M. & Carstens, R. (2015). ICILS 2013 user guide for the international database. Amsterdam: IEA. Ottestad, G. (2013). School leadership for ICT and teachers’ use of digital tools. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 8, 107–125. Rutkowski, L., Gonzalez, E., Joncas, M. & von Davier, M. (2010). International Large-Scale Assessment Data: Issues in Secondary Analysis and Reporting, in: Educational Researcher, 39, 2, 142–151. Tondeur, J., Hermans R., van Braak J., & Valcke M. (2008). Exploring the link between teachers educational beliefs profiles and different types of computer use in the classroom: The impact of teacher beliefs. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 2541–2553.

Author Information

Julia Gerick (presenting / submitting)

TU Dortmund

Institute for School Development Research

Dortmund

Birgit Eickelmann

University of Paderborn

Institute for Educational Science and Teacher Education

Paderborn

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