Birgit Eickelmann

ICT use in mathematics lessons and the mathematics achievement of secondary school students by international comparison: Which role do school level factors play?

By means of an international comparison, the research presented in the article aims to identify supporting and hindering school level factors for the use of ICT in secondary school mathematics lessons. The relationship between ICT use and the performance of Grade 9 students in mathematics is examined and further integrated into a multi-level model including school level factors. Against the background of a theoretical allocation (1) the IT equipment of schools, (2) school leadership, (3) aspects of school goals and educational strategies as well as (4) teachers’ attitudes will be analyzed by means of a multi-level regression model as well as a multi-level path model including the mathematics achievement of students as measured in the context of PISA 2012. Representative school and student data from five countries, namely Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Singapore are taken into consideration, as the integration of ICT in teaching and learning is firmly emphasized in these countries (overall 24,579 students in 1263 schools). By modeling the complex structure, school characteristics are examined with respect to their effect on the use of ICT for mathematics teaching. Moreover, the relation between different factors and students’ mathematics achievement will be synchronously assessed in the different educational systems. The results show that characteristics at school level do play a major role in the integration of ICT into teaching and learning and turn out to be relevant across the educational systems. In addition to further in-depth country-specific findings, the results point to cross-national future challenges in the field of using technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

Teachers‘ attitudes and beliefs regarding ICT in teaching and learning in European countries:

In the debate on the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into schools, the beliefs and attitudes of teachers towards ICT in teaching and learning have always been regarded as central criteria for successful implementation of new technologies. In this context, a study in 2013 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, IEA, provided insights into teachers’ beliefs regarding ICT and showed that perceptions of the pedagogical advantages of technologies differ between countries. With regard to this finding, this paper seeks to determine whether there is a typology of teachers with different attitudes towards the potential of ICTs for learning. This question is addressed by conducting latent class analyses on a sample of teacher data from three European countries – the Czech Republic, Germany and Norway. Furthermore, the paper investigates how the use of computers by teachers varies between the groups to which these teachers can be assigned. In doing so the research reported at hand connects, arguably for the first time, representative data on teacher typologies of attitudes towards and beliefs about ICT in teaching and learning with data on computer use in schools.

Organisationale Bedingungen der Entwicklung von Ganztagsgymnasien: Wie die Schulleitung das Kooperationsverhalten von Lehrkräften fördern kann

Als eine Folge der Ergebnisse groser Schulleistungsstudien und der Debatte um schulische Qualitat und Chancengerechtigkeit ist bundesweit ein deutlicher Ausbau der Ganztagsschullandschaft zu beobachten (KMK 2012). Mit dieser Entwicklung ist u. a. die Hoffnung verbunden, dass durch eine neu gestaltete padagogische Praxis mehr Zeit zur individuellen Forderung der Schulerschaft entsteht (Holtappels 2007).

The international computer and information literacy study from a European perspective: Introduction to the Special Issue

The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS 2013) provides, for the first time, information about students’ computer and information literacy (CIL), as well as its acquisition, based on a computer-based test for students and background questionnaires. Among the 21 education systems that participated in ICILS 2013, there are 12 European countries, making secondary comparative in-depth analyses at a European level particularly fruitful. Accordingly, while the four articles in this Special Issue each deal with different topics and adopt different methodologies, they all share a common element and provide European comparisons in the ICILS context. The editorial in turn outlines the aim of the ICILS 2013 study and its relevance for European education research as well as its contextual framework and approach to the measurement of students’ CIL. The potential and challenges of such large-scale assessment studies are also discussed.

Determinants of teachers’ collaborative use of information and communications technology for teaching and learning: A European perspective:

Collaboration between teachers constitutes an important predictor for the successful implementation of digital media in schools and teaching. The present contribution examines the supporting conditions of ICT (information and communications technology)-related teacher collaboration as a feature of school quality in six selected European educational systems on the basis of the instruments and data administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s study of ICILS 2013 (International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2013). Along the ICILS 2013 theoretical framework, predictors on the level of the school and classroom, antecedents regarding teachers’ attitudes and competencies, variables concerning processes at school and in class, as well as teachers’ background variables, are analysed. The regression analysis shows no consistent differences regarding the coefficients of different predictors with respect to ICT-related collaboration in the countries where teachers have expressed a high, medium or low rate of agreement with ICT-related collaboration.

The Use of Tablets in Secondary Schools and Its Relationship with Computer Literacy

The use of new technologies has become increasingly important in the light of the rapid technological progress made in what is commonly referred to as the digital age. Schools are now facing the challenge of imparting digital competencies to their students in order to ensure their participation in the society. In this context, mobile technologies do not seem to be used on a regular basis in schools. The present paper aims to identify the relationship between the frequency of tablet computer use and students’ computer and information literacy (CIL), which currently constitutes a research gap. The data is gathered in a quasi-experimental design from an individual school in Germany. Drawing on data from tablet classes and control groups taught without tablet computers, the frequency of use and the students’ level of CIL are examined. While results suggest that (1) students in tablet classes use tablets significantly more often, (2) the control group’s level of CIL is higher than that of tablet class students, and (3) the theoretically established correlation between the use of tablet computers and CIL cannot be maintained, teachers indicate in interviews that there are indeed positive effects that go along with the use of tablet computers (4).

Zum Stellenwert neuer Technologien für die individuelle Förderung im Deutschunterricht in der Grundschule

Der Umgang mit Heterogenitat ist eine zentrale Herausforderung fur den Primarbereich. Dies ist mit gestiegenen Anforderungen fur Grundschulen verknupft (u. a. Heinzel / Prengel 2002), die auf der Unterrichtsebene zu neuen Aufgaben im Hinblick auf die Individualisierung von Lernprozessen fuhren. Seit einigen Jahren werden in diesem Zusammenhang die Potenziale des Einsatzes neuer Technologien zur individuellen Forderung diskutiert, die neue Moglichkeiten der Unterstutzung von unterschiedlichen Lernwegen und -methoden bieten und Lernen in unterschiedlichen Lerntempi oder auf unterschiedlichen Leistungsniveaus ermoglichen sollen (u. a. BMBF 2007; Eickelmann 2010; Schulz-Zander et al. 2010).

Die Steuerungsfunktion von zentralen Abiturprüfungen

Eine wichtige Intention zentraler Abiturprufungen ist die Verbesserung der Unterrichtsqualitat (vgl. Maag Merki 2010). Jedoch sind zentrale Abiturprufungen im Gegensatz zu Vergleichsarbeiten und Lernstandserhebungen nicht an entsprechende Ruckmeldeformate gekoppelt, die explizit auf eine Schul- und Unterrichtsentwicklung steuern (vgl. u. a. Diemer & Kuper 2011). Vielmehr werden die Ergebnisse des Zentralabiturs in den meisten Bundeslandern mit wenig unterrichtsbezogenem Informationsgehalt, z. B. in Form von Ruckmeldungen von Notenmittelwerten auf Schulebene, veroffentlicht. Forschungen zeigen jedoch, dass das Zentralabitur durchaus Ruckkopplungen auf den Unterricht bewirkt (vgl. u. a. Eickelmann, Kahnert, Lorenz & Bos 2011; Hamilton, Stecher & Klein 2002; Maag Merki 2010; Nichols & Berliner 2007).