Is it the Way They Use it? Teachers, ICT and Student Achievement

39 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2016

See all articles by Simona Comi

Simona Comi

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Marco Gui

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS)

Federica Origo

University of Bergamo

Laura Pagani

University of Milan, Bicocca - Faculty of Economics; Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS); Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS)

Gianluca Argentin

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan

Date Written: June 13, 2016

Abstract

We provide evidence on whether ICT-related teaching practices affect student achievement. We use a unique student-teacher dataset containing variables on very specific uses of computer and ICT by teachers matched with data on national standardized tests for 10th grade students. Our identification strategy relies on a within-student between-subject estimator and on a rich set of teacher’s controls. We find that computer-based teaching methods increase student performance if they help the teacher to obtain material to prepare lectures, if they channel the transmission of teaching material, if they increase students’ awareness in ICT use and if they enhance communication. Instead, we find a negative impact of practices requiring an active role of the students in classes using ICT. Our findings suggest that the effectiveness of ICT at school depends on the actual practice that teachers make of it and on their ability to integrate ICT into the teaching process.

Keywords: Teaching practices, Student performance, ICT, Between-subject variation

JEL Classification: I21

Suggested Citation

Comi, Simona and Gui, Marco and Origo, Federica and Pagani, Laura and Argentin, Gianluca, Is it the Way They Use it? Teachers, ICT and Student Achievement (June 13, 2016). University of Milan Bicocca Department of Economics, Management and Statistics Working Paper No. 341, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2795207 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2795207

Simona Comi (Contact Author)

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milano, Milan 20126
Italy

Marco Gui

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milano, 20126
Italy

Federica Origo

University of Bergamo ( email )

Via Salvecchio, 19
Bergamo, 24129
Italy

Laura Pagani

University of Milan, Bicocca - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milano, 20126
Italy

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milan, 20126
Italy

Gianluca Argentin

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan ( email )

Largo Gemelli, 1
Via Necchi 9
Milan, MI 20123
Italy

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