ICT use and achievement in three European Countries: What does PISA tell us?

Abstract

During the last decade, in many European countries large investments were made to foster the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education with the expectation that ICT would make teaching and learning more effective. This would, for example, become evident in scores obtained by students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA studies show, however, that PISA achievements do not increase with ICT use. The question for research is why high-frequency ICT use tends to be related to lower PISA achievements. To answer this question, the author has looked at PISA results published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as well as at the results of his own analyses of PISA data. While it seems that ICT use as well as PISA achievements are related to cultural capital, the findings are not clear-cut and vary among the three European countries chosen for investigation.