The Role of Ict to Raise Students’ Achievement in Italian Technical and Professional Schools

Abstract

The research examines the role of using ICT to raise students’ achievement in Italian technical and professional schools. The hypothesis developed in this research is that students who obtain better learning results are those students who use ICT more than those students who are low performers. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) have been analyzed. The relationship between using ICT at school and students’ digital skills and attitudes has been analyzed by comparing the lowest performers and strong performers in reading literacy in Italian technical and professional schools. Results show that in Italian technical and professional schools, strong performers in reading literacy in PISA 2009 are more capable to do tasks at computer than low performers; however reading online and using ICT have greater positive effects towards achievement among low performers. Key words: ICT, PISA, professional school, reading literacy, technical school.

Identifying Turkish students’ profiles of using information and communication technologies and its relationship with their academic achievement: A latent class analysis approach

“…The influence of ICT on student achievement is still a matter of debate in most large-scale international studies conducted by researchers using different variables and methodologies (Erdogdu and Erdogdu, 2015; Petko et al, 2017). Some of these studies reported findings on the positive effects of ICT use on academic achievements (Aşkar and Olkun, 2005; Delen and Bulut 2011; Erdogdu and Erdogdu, 2015; Freddano and Diana, 2012; Kubiatko and Vlckova, 2010; Leino, 2014; Zhang and Liu, 2016). For example, Zhang and Liu (2016), in their study using PISA data from 2000 to 2012, found that when Gross National Product (GNP), school type and school ICT investments were controlled, the variables related to ICT at school-level had positive influence on learning outcomes.…”

“…For instance, in one study with Finnish students, Leino (2014) showed that surfing on the Internet increases reading skills depending on the person’s familiarity with searching data on the Internet. In another study, according to PISA 2009, the Italian students with high levels of success in reading used the computer better than those with low levels of success in reading and that ICT had a more positive effect on the students’ success (Freddano and Diana, 2012).…”