Personal and Social Factors for Predicting Taiwanese Students' ICT Literacy

• In Event: Predictors for Students’ and Teachers’ ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Literacy: Insights From an International Perspective

Abstract

Theoretical framework:
In Taiwan, a new curriculum standard regarding ICT literacy, with an emphasis on computational thinking and computer programming, has been implemented beginning in 2019 for K-12 basic education. Computational thinking has recently been regarded as a new dimension of computer literacy, as artificial intelligence technologies have begun to impact human society (Hershkovitz et al., 2019; Seow et al., 2019; Tsai et al., 2021; Wing, 2011). Recent studies have reported that computer programming learning experience is associated with computational thinking disposition (Tsai et al., 2021) and gender differences seem to have interactions with rural-urban areas (Lee et al., 2023). To understand the plausible effects of the new policy, the relationships among junior high school students’ computer programming experience, computational thinking, and ICT literacy plus the plausible digital divides were investigated with a large sample in Taiwan.

Purpose:
A relational model of two hypotheses was proposed to examine the plausible prediction path from the learning experience of computer programming, via computational thinking disposition, onto ICT literacy: computer programming experience would positively predict students’ computational thinking disposition (H1); and, students’ computational thinking disposition would positively predict their ICT literacy (H2). Meanwhile, digital divides regarding gender and rural-urban differences were examined.

Methods:
A survey with a national sample of 1315 Taiwanese 8th graders in 2020 school year was conducted. Students' computer programming experience consists of four indices: the number of learned programming languages, the learning time (years), and the self-learning experience of computer programming through the Internet and books. Computational thinking refers to computational thinking disposition for systematically solving a problem under the five dimensions: decomposition, abstraction, algorithmic thinking, evaluation and generalization (Tsai et al., 2022). The ICT literacy is profiled by ICT attitude, learning motivation, and self-efficacy. Scale reliabilities ranged from .73 to .97. Pearson’s Correlation, ANOVA, MANOVA and SEM analyses were used to examine the research questions and hypotheses.

Results:
The SEM analysis results supported both of the two hypotheses with two significant prediction paths (p < .000) and all model indicators were shown to fit well. ANOVA results showed that, with no interactive effect, gender difference (male > female) and urban-rural difference (urban > rural) are significant in computer programming learning experience. However, MANOVA results showed a significant interaction between gender and urban-rural areas on students’ ICT learning motivation (urban: male > female; rural: n.s.). Computer programming learning experience has significant effects on CT, ICT attitude, ICT learning motivation and ICT self-efficacy; Urban-rural area has significant impacts on CT and ICT self-efficacy; and, gender only impacted on ICT attitude significantly. These findings suggested that both personal factors (gender, computer programming learning experience) and social factors (urban-rural areas) can predict Taiwanese young students’ ICT literacy.

Scientific significance of the study:
The results of this study can serve as a baseline for future studies examining the effects of curriculum reform. It is interesting that the gender inequality exists in urban areas on ICT learning motivation, which would be beneficial for the policymakers.

Authors

• Meng-Jung Tsai, National Taiwan Normal University

• An-Hsuan Wu, National Taiwan Normal University

• Ching-Yeh Wang, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism

• Po-Fen Hsu, National Taiwan Normal University

• Kai-Chuan Wu, National Taiwan Normal University