Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 1 (2009) 18021804
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World Conference on Educational Sciences 2009 Effects of computer use on students mathematics achievement in Turkey brahim DEMR a , Serpil KILI a,b,* a Department of Statistics, Institute of Science, Assistant Professor, stanbul, Turkey b Department of Statistics, Institute of Science, Research Assistant, stanbul, Turkey Received October 25, 2008; revised December 16, 2008; accepted January 4, 2009 Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of computer using on mathematics achievement. The sample was prepared from students who participated in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Turkey. These data consisted of 4816 15 year-old Turkish students in 159 schools. Analysis was done with two-level hierarchical linear model. These clustered data set with a two level hierarchical structure examined students nested within different schools. Two-level model was used to estimate coefficients and modeled differences across schools. Results from this study indicate that some of the school type, male students and computer use at home variables had positive effects and there is no significant role in students mathematical performance between the First generation and Non-native students. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved Keywords: Hierarchical linear model; Computer use; Mathematics achievement; PISA. 1. Introduction Turkish Education System has democratic, modern, secular and co-education characteristics. The aims of the system are to increase prosperity and welfare of Turkish citizens and society, to support and accelerate economic, social, cultural development in accordance with national unity and integrity. Turkeys centralized education system began using computers began more twenty years ago. Computers with built-in graphing software for enhancing mathematics teaching and learning are now over ten years old. Serpil Kl. Tel.: +90-212-383-4424; fax: +90-212-383-4415. E-mail address: serkilic@yildiz.edu.tr. 1877-0428/$see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2009.01.319 I
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Education is a complex process and many factors directly or indirectly affect school outcomes. However, most of the previous studies took into account the multiple factors of mathematical achievement, in addition, to explain what purpose of using computers at home might help students achievement. But it is difficult to properly define the major factors influencing achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of computer using on mathematics achievement. The sample was prepared from students who participated in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Turkey. The PISA is a collaborative effort, involving 30 OECD countries and 11 partner countries, to measure how well 15- year-old students are prepared to meet the challenges of todays knowledge societies. These data consisted of 4816 15 year-old Turkish students in 159 schools. Analysis was done with two-level hierarchical linear model. These clustered data set with a two level hierarchical structure examined students nested within different schools. Two- level model was used to estimate coefficients and modeled differences across schools. This kind of study has not been made in Turkey using PISA dataset. But we show that there are many studies about educational achievement using multilevel regression analysis in international review. It is given examples Wittwers (2008) and Chows (2007) studies. Wittwer et. al. (2008) analyzed the effects of using computers at home on students performance at school. The sample consisted of German students who participated in PISA in 2003; result from this study showed that students access to a computer was not linked with their performance in mathematics. Chow et. al. (2007) examined whether strategies of memorization, transfer through elaboration and metacognition accounted for reading, science and mathematics achievement across 34 countries.158848 fifteen-year-olds completed a reading literacy test and a questionnaire. Of these students, 88401 completed a science test and 88590 completed a mathematics test. It was analyzed the data using multilevel regressions and modeled differences across countries and across schools. Students who reported using memorization strategies often scored lower in all subjects. Transfer through elaboration wasnt significantly linked to any achievement scores. In this study, dependent variable is mathematics achievement and independent variables of level-1 are gender, immigrant background, computer at home and cultural possessions. School level (level-2) variables consist of school type and quality of schools educational resources. Data was analyzed using SPSS 15.0 and HLM 6.04 after selecting the variables that is related to the mathematics achievement and erasing missing values from dataset. Also, students socio economic status, their gender, computer facilities at home and quality of schools educational resources were significantly associated with their performance in mathematics. Descriptive statistics of using variables in this study are found in Table 1 and Table 2. Table 1. Frequencies of the categorical predictors of school performance Independent Measures In % Gender Male 56,9 Female 43,1 Immigration Background Native students 98,6 First generation students 0,6 Non-native students 0,8 School Type Police Colleges 7,0 Vocational High Schools 13,0 Anatolian Vocational High Schools 15,0 Science High Schools 1,3 Anatolian High Schools 4,2 1804 I
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Primary Schools 2,4 Private High Schools 3,3 General High Schools 60,0 Table 2 Means and standard deviations of the continuous predictors of school performance Independent measures Mean sd Computer Facilities at Home -1.20 0.86 Cultural Possessions -0.10 0.94 Quality of Schools Educational Resources -1.33 0.95 Economic, social and cultural status -0,96 1,08 We suggest that quality of schools educational must be increased for better mathematics achievement. To do that school management may increase the number of library materials, audio-visual resources and computers. Many of schools in Turkey havent any computer laboratory, so government should make an investment in these school types and give a course to teacher. Because the new understandings required of teachers include not only technical skills but an understanding of the relevance of the various features and information provided by the software to their own instructional and curricular priorities, as well as pedagogical strategies for using the software in the context of other constraints, such as time limitations and prerequisite student skills. The findings are suggestive of ways in which performance in mathematics should be enhanced through the use of computers. We thought that this study could be resource for further national and international researches. References Chiu, M. M., & Xihua, Z. (2008). Family and motivation effects on mathematics achievement: Analyses of students in 41 countries. Learning and Individual Differences, 18, 321-336. Cox, M., Webb, M., Abbott, C., Blakeley, B., Beauchamp, T., & Rhodes, V. (2004). A review of the research literature relating to ICT and attainment. London: Becta. Hammouri, H. A. M. (2004). Attitudinal and motivational variables related to mathematics achievement in Jordan: findings from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Educational Research, 46, No. 3. Hox, J. (2002). Multivariate Analysis: Techniques and Applications. Mahwah NJ/London: Lawrence Erlbaum. Jonassen, D. H. (2000). Toward A Design Theory of Problem Solving. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48, 63-85. Livaditis, M., Zaphiriadis, K., Samakouri, M., Tellidou, C., Tzvaras, N., & Xeniditis, K. (2003). Gender differences, family and psychological factors affecting school performance in Greek secondary school students. Educational Psychology, 23, 223-231. OECD, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003. (2005). Technical report. OECD: Paris. Ramirez, M. J. (2006). Understanding the low mathematics achievement of Chilean students: A cross_national analysis using TIMSS data. International Journal of Educational Research, 45, 102-116. Raudenbush, S.W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. Second Edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Snijders, T. A., & Bosker, R. J. (1999). Multivariate Analysis: An Introduction to Basic and Advanced Multilevel Modelling. London: Sage Publications. Wilkins, J. L. M. (2004). Mathematics and Science Self-Concept: An International Investigation. The Journal of Experimental Education, 72(4), 331-346. Wittwer, J., & Senkbeil, M. (2008). Is students computer use at home related to their mathematical performance at school?. Computers & Education 50, 1558-1571.