The social differences in the digital skills of eighth-graders have widened significantly over the past ten years. This is the result of a new analysis by the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Goethe University Frankfurt and Paderborn University. According to the researchers, the cultural environment at home and the type of school are the main factors behind this development.
"The social background is causing an ever-widening gap in young people's digital skills," says Dr Markus L?rz from the DIPF, lead author of the study now published in the journal "Computers & Education". "The cultural environment at home and the type of school have proven to be the central explanatory factors for this digital inequality," explains Dr L?rz.
The study
For the new study, the research team, consisting of Dr Markus L?rz, Prof Dr Birgit Becker (Goethe University), Dr Jan Niemann, Dr Kerstin Drossel and Prof Dr Birgit Eickelmann (all from Paderborn University), analysed data from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) in Germany from 2013, 2018 and 2023 and looked at the computer and information skills of around 8,500 Year 8 pupils in terms of their social background. The main focus of the skills is on how sensibly, critically and responsibly young people use technology and information in the digital space.
As part of this secondary analysis, the team examined the socially different skills development of pupils from 2013 to 2023. The social background of the pupils was measured by the socio-economic status of their parents. In addition, the researchers looked at 1. the digital home environment (available digital devices, experience with computers, use of devices for learning), 2. the cultural home environment (number of books in the household) and 3. the type of school (grammar school, comprehensive schools, and other schools) and analysed their role as a possible explanation for the social differences in digital skills.
Results
In 2013, the difference in digital skills between pupils from privileged families and those from less privileged families was 43 competence points. Ten years later, this difference had risen to 66 points. A closer look at the learning conditions revealed that the cultural conditions at home and the chosen educational pathways in particular differed significantly according to social background.
Here, the researchers not only found that these learning conditions were closely linked to the acquisition of digital skills, but also that their importance for the acquisition of skills has increased over time. In 2013, for example, pupils whose parents had more than 200 books at home achieved 66 competence points more than those with 25 or fewer books. In 2023, this difference had grown to 86 points. In 2013, young people at grammar school achieved a 65-point better competence score than pupils at other schools. In 2023, this difference was already 85 points.
Nevertheless, according to the researchers' findings, these differences in home and school learning conditions alone are not sufficient to explain the increase in social inequalities. Even after factoring out these influencing factors, the social differences in digital skills have increased in recent years. One of the research team's hypotheses is that this may be related to the coronavirus pandemic: at this time, the need to use digital media competently has risen abruptly and pupils from privileged homes have coped better with the changed conditions.
Classifications
According to the researchers, a new field of social differences is opening up in the area of digitality: "However, since the overall digital competence level of pupils in Germany has fallen over the period under review, the increasing inequality is less to do with the fact that certain groups have improved significantly. Rather, some groups in particular have declined," explains Dr L?rz. With regard to the identified influences of the cultural home environment and the type of school, the educational researcher recommends: "It would be advisable to do more to counteract the socially unequal distribution of pupils across school types. Schools in particular are also called upon to compensate for the culturally unfavourable learning conditions at home for children from families with a low socio-economic status."
At the same time, the researchers point out some limitations to the significance of the analysis presented. For example, the approaches of analysing the cultural learning environment at home based on the number of books and the school learning environment based solely on the type of school are relatively undifferentiated. In addition, the rapid changes in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are not yet fully covered by the data. According to the authors, further research is needed to make more robust statements.
The analysis can be read in detail in a freely available specialist article:
This text was translated automatically.
