High-school students’ perceptions of the effects of non-academic usage of ICT on their academic achievements
Keywords
Non-academic usage of ICT Academic achievements Perceptions Self Esteem Theory
Publication details
| Year: | 2016 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.chb.2016.06.024 |
| Issued: | 2016 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 64 |
| Start Page: | 143 |
| End Page: | 151 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Salomon A.; Ben-David Kolikant Y. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Computers in Human Behavior |
| Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
| Topics: | Learning; Wellbeing |
| Sample: | The survey comprised 533 9th and 10th-grade students from seven public high schools in Jerusalem, Israel. From each school, three classes were randomly selected, and all the students in these classes were sampled, a total of 539 students. Of these, six students decided not to participate or only partially filled in the survey, and hence were removed from the sample. |
| Implications For Parents About: | Parenting guidance / support |
| Implications For Educators About: | Other |
Abstract
We investigated high-school students’ perceptions of the relationship between non-academic information
and communications technology (NA-ICT) use and academic achievements. A sample of 533 Israeli
students responded to surveys on ICT use habits, achievements, and the relationship between the two. A
negative correlation between reported NA-ICT use time and reported scores was found. The idea of the
negative effect of NA-ICT use on achievements was accepted by the majority of students, regardless of
their academic achievements. However, when asked about the effect that reducing NA-ICT use time
might have on their own grades, the majority of students found on the middle levels of the school
performance scale appeared to believe that limiting NA-ICT usage will help them improve their grades. In
contrast, students found on both ends of the scale (high-achieving and low-achieving alike) did not
necessarily see a decrease in NA-ICT usage as beneficial. We discuss a possible explanation relying on
Covington’s (1992) Self Esteem Theory and the entailed practical implications of our study.
Outcome
A negative correlation between reported NA-ICT use time and reported scores was found (Salomon & Kolikant). although high achieving students (those with “high” and “very high” scores) tend to spend less time online for non-academic purposes, there was not found in this group a higher rate of students with strong opinions regarding the negative impact of NA-ICT usage on academic performance.
Reciprocally, there was not a higher rate of weak opinion students in lower-achieving groups. the majority of the high-school students reported a perceived negative effect of NA-ICT usage on their school performance