Chapter 6 General Findings from Primary School Sector
6.5 Student learning
6.5.7 Perceived impacts of IT on students
In relation to students’ skills, it is clear from the qualitative analyses described elsewhere in this chapter that primary schools are not actively teaching information literacy as opposed to IT skills and knowledge.
Chapter 6: General Findings from Primary School Sector
Table 6.39: Heads’ perceptions of impacts of ITEd on students (School Heads’ Questionnaire, Q. 9c)
SD N % of school heads choosing the option
Impacts Mean
(0-4) Strongly
agree
Agree Neutral/
uncertain
Disagree Strongly disagree
Increased subject knowledge 3.2 0.5 619 28.0 66.4 5.3 0.3 0.0
Improved computer skills 3.4 0.6 621 46.2 51.5 2.1 0.0 0.2
Enhanced creativity 2.9 0.7 621 16.6 61.5 20.5 1.5 0.0
Improved communication and expression skills
2.6 0.8 621 10.6 45.4 38.3 5.2 0.5
Strengthened co-operation with others
2.6 0.7 621 6.8 54.1 34.1 4.7 0.3
Weakened interpersonal skills due to excessive time spent on computers
1.9 0.8 620 2.3 20.5 43.1 31.9 2.3
Negligence of school work due to excessive time spent on computers
1.5 0.8 620 1.5 9.0 36.3 46.6 6.6
Stimulated interest in learning 3.2 0.5 621 19.3 77.0 3.4 0.3 0.0
Increased initiative to learn 3.0 0.6 621 13.7 71.3 13.7 1.3 0.0
Increased confidence 2.8 0.6 621 8.5 65.7 24.6 1.1 0.0
Improved learning effectiveness 3.0 0.5 621 14.0 73.0 12.7 0.3 0.0
Widened perspective through enlarged social circle
2.4 0.7 621 3.4 44.8 42.8 8.1 1.0
More opportunity for being exposed to unhealthy information
2.3 0.9 621 4.5 42.2 32.2 19.8 1.3
Developed high-level thinking 2.5 0.7 620 5.3 47.9 42.4 3.9 0.5
Similarly, as can be seen from Table 6.40 (Teachers’ Questionnaire item 14e), the primary school teachers also indicated their perception that IT has impacted on students’ increased subject knowledge and learning effectiveness as well as interest and initiative to learn and, to a lesser extent, concentration. On the other hand, only 34.5% of the teachers feel strongly that IT use has contributed to any clear progress in academic performance. This was further supported by one of the teacher focus group interviews, in which some teachers expressed the concern that the use of IT cannot help students develop analytic skills because they often do little more than cut and paste information from the Internet without analyzing or synthesizing. The following quotations from teacher focus group interviews illustrate this concern:
... we have animation for everything that can be displayed to the students. Gradually, you will find that their imagination is diminishing, because they can see everything from the animations and do not need to think any more. Why is the bear white if it is brown on the screen? It is limiting children's creative thinking. This may be one negative impact of IT.
They have everything given to them, why do they need to think?
That really depends on the how teachers facilitate them. Say for example, Integrated Science, if you ask them to work on a topic, the simplest thing to do is go to the internet, copy and paste. Those who are more serious may give you 2 more pictures, or delete a few words and work out their own summaries. Use of IT in teaching may lead to very impressive result, or just a piece of ordinary homework. That depends how teachers lead them.
Generally the primary school teachers interviewed did not think that there is any direct relationship between IT use and student attitudes to learning. They see attitudes as being a separate issue from IT, depending on a lot of factors of which IT use is only one.
Table 6.40: Teachers’ perceptions of benefits to students of IT use in their most satisfying lessons with IT (Teachers’ Questionnaire, Q. 14e)
% of teachers choosing the option
Benefits Mean
(0-4)
SE N
Strongly agree
Agree Neutral/
uncertain
Disagree Strongly disagree
Increased subject knowledge 3.2 0.01 3620 24.0 69.8 5.7 0.4 0.1
Improved computer skills 2.4 0.02 3582 8.0 42.6 32.8 13.0 3.6
Improved information processing ability
2.4 0.02 3576 7.0 47.5 30.9 11.8 2.8
Enhanced creativity 2.5 0.02 3572 8.6 46.8 32.3 10.0 2.4
Improved communication and expression skills
2.5 0.02 3581 8.1 49.0 32.4 9.0 1.5
Learned to co-operate with others 2.5 0.02 3579 9.1 48.1 29.8 10.8 2.2 Stimulated interest in learning 3.2 0.01 3627 26.4 66.7 6.0 0.7 0.3 Increased initiative to learn 3.0 0.01 3609 20.1 60.6 16.9 2.0 0.4
Increased confidence 2.7 0.02 3587 12.0 52.4 30.4 4.3 0.9
Improved learning effectiveness 3.0 0.01 3607 17.7 64.6 15.6 1.7 0.4
Enlarged social circle 2.1 0.02 3568 4.6 30.0 44.5 16.4 4.5
Widened perspective through more interaction with the outside world
2.6 0.01 3575 11.5 52.7 26.3 7.4 2.2
Greater concentration in learning 2.7 0.02 3597 10.7 55.0 29.2 4.4 0.8 Easier and deeper understanding of
the lesson
2.9 0.01 3604 14.7 64.5 18.5 2.1 0.3
Clear progress in academic performance
2.3 0.01 3560 4.6 29.9 56.8 7.6 1.2
The heads’ and teachers’ perception of increased interest is further supported by the students’ views of what they have gained from IT use in class depicted in Table 6.41 (Students’ Questionnaire item 13b).
In all cases, increased subject knowledge and stimulated interest in learning are the two most highly rated gains from the lesson. This appears, however, to be contradicted somewhat by the perception of the majority of the students interviewed, that IT is more of a ‘toy’ than something that has an impact on their attitudes to learning. Their overall view was that it helps them to access information more easily and it is a good thing to use, but they had no real thinking about why and how it helps them, other than that some did have the perception that if they develop their IT skills they will have better future job prospects. But mostly they saw it as just one tool rather than a major contributing factor. In fact, some said that their parents ban computer use during the exam period, which further seems to suggest that students and their parents regard the computer as a potential distraction rather than as something that can enhance their learning. The claim indicated by the quantitative data in Table 6.40 is further contradicted by the school heads and teachers interviewed who said they have perceived no impact of IT on students and even further counter evidence comes from the classroom observation data.
While the quantitative data are suggesting that principals and teachers see one purpose of IT being to motivate students and create greater interest in learning, classroom observations indicated that this has nothing to do with IT per se but rather to do with the interaction between IT and the teacher’s instructional design. It was observed consistently that students’ interest and motivation were high only when there was some kind of interaction built in with the help of IT. In the didactic, teacher-centred types of presentation using PowerPoint the observers did not see any signs of particular interest, whereas the students were more motivated on the occasions when they were given a chance to use IT as a tool for learning rather than when it was being used as a tool for teaching with technology.
In summary, it is suggested here that while the quantitative data suggest that IT has positive impacts on students, the qualitative data implies that it may not be as simplistic as the statistics suggest. Moreover, the perceived impact on information processing ability and communication and expression skills is not particularly high considering that these are important aspects of a student-centred approach to teaching and learning.
Chapter 6: General Findings from Primary School Sector
Table 6.41: Students’ perceptions of what they have gained from their lessons they like the most with IT application (Students’ Questionnaire, Q. 13b)
% of students choosing the option
Perceived gain Mean
(0-4)
SE N
Strongly Agree
Agree Neutral/
Uncertain
Disagree Strongly Disagree
Increased subject knowledge 3.3 0.02 2425 56.4 28.3 11.2 1.8 2.3
Improved computer skills 3.2 0.02 2422 50.8 28.0 15.3 3.2 2.8
Improved information processing ability
2.9 0.02 2408 37.1 28.6 25.7 5.2 3.3
Enhanced creativity 3.0 0.03 2401 43.2 27.0 20.3 6.2 3.3
Improved communication and expression skills
2.6 0.03 2395 31.3 25.0 27.4 10.0 6.3
Learned to co-operate with others 3.0 0.03 2409 45.1 24.6 18.9 5.9 5.4 Stimulated interest in learning 3.4 0.02 2401 60.2 25.9 8.9 2.6 2.4 Increased initiative to learn 3.1 0.02 2396 44.5 27.9 19.9 3.9 3.8
Increased confidence 2.8 0.03 2395 36.5 27.4 23.3 7.1 5.7
Improved learning effectiveness 2.9 0.03 2392 39.3 28.9 22.9 4.6 4.3
Enlarged social circle 2.6 0.03 2380 29.4 22.6 31.3 8.4 8.3
P3
Widened perspective through more interaction with the outside world
2.6 0.03 2384 31.8 22.7 28.8 7.3 9.4
Increased subject knowledge 3.1 0.02 2473 36.2 46.0 14.7 1.5 1.7
Improved computer skills 3.0 0.03 2467 35.7 36.5 20.2 4.6 3.0
Improved information processing ability
2.8 0.03 2459 27.1 37.0 27.8 5.6 2.5
Enhanced creativity 2.6 0.03 2458 21.8 31.5 33.8 10.1 2.8
Improved communication and expression skills
2.4 0.03 2463 17.9 25.9 39.0 12.8 4.4
Learned to co-operate with others 2.7 0.03 2460 27.2 35.3 25.9 8.1 3.6 Stimulated interest in learning 3.1 0.02 2459 41.0 38.0 15.5 3.6 1.8 Increased initiative to learn 2.7 0.03 2465 26.1 30.9 31.7 7.4 3.8
Increased confidence 2.4 0.03 2463 18.4 24.4 38.5 12.6 6.2
Improved learning effectiveness 2.8 0.03 2458 26.6 38.0 27.7 5.0 2.8
Enlarged social circle 2.4 0.03 2460 18.9 24.3 37.7 13.1 6.0
P6
Widened perspective through more interaction with the outside world
2.7 0.03 2456 28.7 30.1 28.4 7.8 5.1
The above patterns are supported further by the students’ perceptions of the impact of their teachers using IT as opposed to using it themselves in class (Students’ Questionnaire item 10). 79.1% of P3 students and 74% of P6 students agreed or strongly agreed that classes have become more interesting as a result of their teachers using IT. Fairly high proportions of students also agreed or strongly agreed that the teachers’ use of IT has made it easier for them to understand subject content and to tackle some of their learning problems. Generally higher proportions of P3 students agreed that the teachers’
use of IT has had an impact, with one of the biggest differences between P3 and P6 being in their perception that their academic performance had improved. However it must be noted again, as discussed above, that there seems to be some contradiction between the quantitative data here and the suggestion from interviews with school heads, teachers and students and classroom visits that there has not been very much impact and that, where it has occurred, it has been a consequence of the way in which the teacher has used the IT rather than of the IT itself.
Parents were less sure about the impacts of home computers on their children’s academic results, with the majority of parents of both P3 and P6 children saying there was no impact (Parents’ Questionnaire item 4a). It may be interesting to note that more parents of P6 children indicated the belief that home computers had negative impacts on their children’s academic achievement, however these percentages are quite low (21.9% of P6 compared to 10.7% of P3). Generally the teachers and students in this Study had a more positive view than those in the Preliminary study of the impact of ITEd on students, but only by half a point or less for most items.