The Contribution of Pupil, Classroom and School Level Characteristics to Primary School Pupils’ ICT Competences: A Performance-based Approach

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. The central aim of this study was to investigate which pupil, classroom and school level characteristics are related to primary school pupils' actual ICT competences. A sample of 378 pupils in 58 schools in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) completed a performance-based ICT competence test in order to measure their actual proficiency in retrieving and processing digital information, and in communicating through a computer. To gather information on the factors at each different level, questionnaires were administered to the pupils, their parents (n = 378), their teachers (n = 83) and the ICT coordinators (n = 58) of the schools. Pupils on average have a low to medium score on the developed ICT competence test. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis with multilevel design show that the differences in ICT competences can be mainly attributed to differences in pupil level characteristics. The results indicate that especially non-ICT related pupil characteristics are associated with differences in primary school pupils' ICT competences, such as introjected regulation, controlling learning style, analytic intelligence, sex and socioeconomic status. Furthermore, the final model also indicates that parental ICT attitudes are related to primary school pupils' ICT competences. With regard to the classroom level characteristics, educational use of ICT as an information tool is significantly related to pupils' ICT competences.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: The contribution of pupil, classroom and school level characteristics to primary school pupils' ICT competences: A performance-based approach journaltitle: Computers & Education articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.03.014 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.status: publishe