Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Only gifted students benefit from ICT use at school in mathematics learning

  • Published:
Education and Information Technologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous literature highlights the potential of ICT use to enhance mathematical learning. There are also several theoretical arguments supporting that gifted education benefits from ICT use. However, empirical studies have paid little attention to the relationship between ICT use and gifted students’ mathematics performance. It is also unclear whether and why this relationship differs between gifted students and their peers. For the first time, we tested this relationship by using a large-scale multinational sample of 236,938 adolescents attending 10,213 schools in 44 countries in several contexts from the Programme for International Student Assessment Questionnaire (PISA) 2018. We estimated a hierarchical linear model (HLM) and found that only gifted students benefit from ICT use in mathematics learning. The higher their level of performance, the more beneficial ICT use is for gifted students. This relation is negative in the case of the rest of the students. Based on theoretical arguments, we also explain the likely reasons that lay behind this different relationship between gifted students and their peers. The findings illustrate that policymakers should consider a differentiated approach to ICT use at school depending on the students’ level of performance. Gifted students could benefit more from ICT use in learning and the rest of the students from teaching with more human interaction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

Notes

  1. The OECD explains in detail the sampling process of the participating schools and students. The samples of students in each participating country were obtained using a two-stage stratified procedure. In the first stage, schools, where 15-year-old students may be enrolled, were selected. A minimum of 150 participating schools were selected in each country. The probability of schools being selected was directly proportional to the estimated size of their (eligible) 15-year-old population. In parallel, other schools is chosen to replace those not wishing to participate. In the second step, 42 students were selected to answer the questionnaire in each participating school. All 15-year-old students in the school were selected if fewer than 42 were enrolled, always respecting a minimum of 20 participating students. Data quality standards in PISA required minimum participation rates for schools and students. This ensures that the possible bias resulting from nonresponse was smaller than the sampling error.

  2. The OECD distinguishes seven levels of academic performance. Level 0 is the lowest and, in the case of mathematics, it is composed of the students who obtained a result below 189.33 points. Levels 5 and 6 are considered the levels of excellence. They group students who obtained results between 625.61 and 698.32 (level 5) or above 698.32 points (level 6).

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luis Vargas-Montoya.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial). The dataset we have managed in the study is of public access. Subjects cannot be identified in anyway or exposed to risks, liabilities, or reputational damage.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vargas-Montoya, L., Gimenez, G. & Tkacheva, L. Only gifted students benefit from ICT use at school in mathematics learning. Educ Inf Technol 29, 8301–8326 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12136-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12136-2

Keywords

Navigation