Conference Agenda

Digitalization has altered almost all areas of life and has increasingly been established in schools. The expected potentials are manifold with regard to affective variables such as increased motivation to learn, the optimization of learning processes and the improvement of students’ competencies (Voogt et al., 2018). However, research does not consistently show positive correlations between the use of digital media (e.g. different tools, purposes or frequencies) and increased outcomes. In addition, the phase of interruption of regular teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic is noteworthy, as digitalization has maintained teaching processes in many places during this time. Research on disruption of schooling has mainly shown a decline in competencies, and indicated that digitalization has not been able to help prevent a drop in competencies to the same extent in all countries (Di Pietro, 2023; Kennedy & Strietholt, 2023; König & Frey, 2022). Against this background, the papers of the symposium will examine the overarching question of what potential the use of digital media has in the classroom in an international comparison and which factors are relevant for its effectiveness.

The first presentation by Simon Skov Fougt and Katja Neubert will address the debates about digitization, especially in the Nordic countries after the latest results of PIRLS and PISA showing a decline in students’ competencies. In these rather digitized countries, the decline in the competencies measured could not be fully compensated for by digitization, which was the expectation on many sides. The paper discusses an explanatory approach based on PIRLS data with a special focus on Denmark amongst the Nordic countries to the question how digitalization can nevertheless be seen as a positively influencing factor on reading literacy in fourth grade during the pandemic.

The second contribution by Ramona Lorenz, Ulrich Ludewig and Nele McElvany will broaden the perspective to several European countries. Given inconsistent findings on the effects of digital media depending on the purpose of use and differences according to the socio-economic background of the students, the paper explores the question of how digital schoolwork is related to reading literacy in fourth grade and if differences between countries and between European regions can be found. With data form PIRLS 2021 a multi-group two level model with cross-level interaction shows that no systematic negative relations between digital reading and reading literacy can be found but some positive relations at specific levels or in specific countries appear. Regional differences will be discussed in depth.

The third contribution by Fazilat Siddiq and Ronny Scherer consistently provides insights in how digital media should be used in a purposeful way so that digitalization can have the desired effect on students` competencies. Even if education systems worldwide have integrated digitalization, there is still a huge need for teachers to gain a better understanding and professional knowledge for implementing digital media in a reasonable manner. A theory-driven and research-based teaching program was developed to support teachers in enhancing lower secondary students` 21st century skills. By means of thematic analysis and network analysis, learning experiences within this teaching program are examined. Important implications for digitalization in schools complete the contribution.

The symposium concludes with a comprehensive discussion and thorough appraisal of the three contributions by Rolf Strietholt.

PIRLS 2021 and PISA 2022 showed significant declines in Danish students’ reading competence (Fougt et al. 2023; Gissel 2023), as well as we internationally have seen the largest decline ever. One proven factor here is the covid 19-pandemic (Kennedy & Strietholt 2023); however the waste majority of the public debate in Denmark following PIRLS 2021 and PISA 2022 focuses on digitalization, also at governmental level. The Danish Minister for Culture argued to abandon digitalization in schools, our Prime Minister claimed that smartphones were the biggest threat towards our children, and The Minister for Education gave a public excuse for ‘the digital experiment’ in schools. Several opinions makers and some researchers argue for screen restrictions in education (eg. Ågård, 2021; Rashid et al. 2024). This paper challenges this standing point with the hypothesis that the waste digitalization of Danish schools and the habituation of teachers and students might have helped to prevent a larger decline in Danish students’ reading competence during the pandemic, as schools relatively easy could transfer to online teaching. The paper mainly draws on PIRLS data and focuses on the comparable Nordic Countries with the following research question: How can digitalization be seen as a positively influencing factor on students reading competence during the pandemic? In 2022, Denmark was world ranking no. 1 for the third successive time in the latest UN E-government survey on digitalization (UN 2022). PIRLS 2016-2021 data show that Danish schools have been more digitalized for a longer time compared to all other PIRLS participants, also the other Nordic countries. Both in PISA and PIRLS we see a minor decline in students’ reading competence in Denmark as compared to the other Nordic countries, and at the same time, Denmark was by far the most school-closed country within the Nordic countries during the pandemic. This paper discusses this explanatory approach, and it is also including development in SES and in spoken language at home as other possible explaining factors.

Fougt, S. S., Neubert, K., Kristensen, R. M., Gabrielsson, R., Molbæk, L., & Kjeldsen, C. C. (2023). Danske elevers læsekompetence i 4. klasse: Resultater af PIRLS-undersøgelsen 2021. Aarhus Universitetsforlag Gissel, S.T. (2023). PISA 2022 LÆSNING. Delrapport. VIVE https://www.uvm.dk/-/media/filer/uvm/int/231204-pisa-2022-laesning-pdf-ua.pdf Kennedy, A. I., & Strietholt, R. (2023). School Closure Policies and Student Reading Achievement: Evidence Across Countries. Rashid, I., Bro, K. B. & Brixtofte, M. (2024). Skærmsund. En fire-ugers guide til sundere skærmvaner. Gyldendal UN (2022). UNITED NATIONS E-GOVERNMENT SURVEY 2022. The Future of Digital Government. Department of Economic and Social Affairs https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2022

Reading literacy is an important foundation for educational achievement, social participation, and professional life. Digitalization is expanding to a considerable extent the reading opportunities that students have in their everyday lives, but also in the school context. The use of digital media is considered to have a wide range of potential benefits for learning. Nevertheless, research does not consistently point out positive effects of digital tools and e.g. has shown that digital reading, at least during leisure time, does not necessarily add to reading comprehension (Altamura et al., 2023). Other studies indicated a negative relation of the amount of daily use of digital devices with reading comprehension that could be compensated by a supportive use by the teachers within digital reading projects (Salmerón et al., 2022). Overall, international large-scale assessments show that in some countries more digital reading time in school is associated with higher reading literacy. In some education systems, however, a negative correlation is found (Lorenz et al., 2023). Furthermore, there is an ongoing discussion about the use of digital media for reading instruction and how it`s use differs between students with different socio-economic backgrounds. This discussion is driven from findings of particularly large learning deficits among children from low socio-economic backgrounds while learning digitally during the COVID-19 pandemic and on country level a larger gap between middle-income countries relative to high-income countries (Betthäuser et al., 2022). This leads to the question on digitization for school purposes in an international comparison: What relation of digital schoolwork with reading literacy can be found in fourth grade across European countries? Results indicate an overall positive association of the amount of digital schoolwork (finding and reading information; preparing reports and presentations) and reading literacy at the country level for all considered European countries in PIRLS 2021. Regional differences are that Northern European countries have both a higher level of digital reading for schoolwork and reading literacy, whereas Western European countries have a lower level of digital reading along with lower reading literacy. A multi-group two level model with cross-level interaction revealed effects at the class level, primarily in Eastern and Southern European countries. However, no effects at any level remain statistically significant after controlling for socioeconomic background and spoken language at home (other than test language). Results show no evidence in support of a negative association between digital schoolwork and reading literacy. Inequality between European regions will be discussed.

Altamura, L., Vargas, C., & Salmerón L. (2023). Do new forms of reading pay off? A meta-analysis on the relationship between leisure digital reading habits and text comprehension. Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231216463 Betthäuser, B.A., Bach-Mortensen, A.M., & Engzell, P. (2022). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on learning during the covid-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behaviour, 7(3), 375–385. Lorenz, R., Goldhammer, F. & Glondys, M. (2023). Digitalisierung in der Grundschule [Digitalization in elementary school]. In N. McElvany, R. Lorenz, A. Frey, F. Goldhammer, A. Schilcher & T. C. Stubbe (Hrsg.), IGLU 2021 – Lesekompetenz von Grundschulkindern im internationalen Vergleich und im Trend über 20 Jahre [PIRLS 2021 - Reading literacy of primary school children in an international comparison and trend over 20 years] (S. 197–214). Münster: Waxmann. Salmerón, L., Vargas, C., Delgado, P., & Baron, N. (2022). Relation between digital tool practices in the language arts classroom and reading comprehension scores. Reading and Writing, 36, 175–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10295-1

In recent years, several countries have undergone major curriculum revisions, which has resulted in the inclusion of interdisciplinary competence areas such as digital competence, computational thinking, critical thinking, problem solving and collaborative learning into the compulsory K-12 curricula (Erstad & Siddiq, 2023). Such overarching competence areas are oftentimes labelled 21st century skills (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). Although the intentions in the curriculum are positive, there is currently little research-based knowledge about how such competences can be taught and assessed, and teachers report lack of access to professional development and teaching materials (Erstad & Siddiq, 2022; Kravik et al., 2022). To meet some of these challenges, the TEACH21st-project (Teaching and transfer effects of 21st century skills – collaborative problem solving in digital environments) was initiated in 2019 with the aim to develop teaching materials and practices that are knowledge- (theory-driven) and research-based. More specifically, applying a teacher design team approach (Becuwe et al., 2016) teachers, teacher educators, student teachers and researchers worked together to develop a teaching resource aimed at developing lower secondary students’ computational thinking and collaborative problem-solving competences. This program has been developed, piloted and revised through several iterations. The final teaching program includes materials (games, charts, tasks etc.) for the teachers and students, and practices (e.g., use of analogue and computer programming in combination to teach computational thinking, how to teach collaborative learning and use it as a pedagogical approach). The program consists of four modules that are built on the principles of: relevance (target learning goals in the curriculum); inclusion (all students should be able to participate independent of their previous knowledge, and provide adaptive teaching); engagement and activity (include engaging and fun tasks, involving physical activity and hands-on assignments); collaborative learning (students need to learn to collaborate and the tasks require positive dependence); and progression (the tasks move towards more advanced levels). Finally, this program has been conducted in 32 classes by their teachers (N=16) after attending a one-day professional development workshop. In this study, we will examine how the 9th grade students (N = 460) experience learning within this teaching program. The data consist of the students' reflection notes conducted after each of the four modules and observations (N = 24 classes). The data has been analyzed through a combination of thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2021) and network analysis (Epskamp et al., 2018). Results and implications will be discussed.

Becuwe, H., Tondeur, J., Pareja, R. N., Thys, J., & Castelein, E. (2016). Teacher design teams as a strategy for professional development: The role of the facilitator. Educational Research and Evaluation, 22(3-4). Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. London: Sage Epskamp, S., Maris, G., Waldorp, L. J., & Borsboom, D. (2018). Network psychometrics. In The wiley handbook of psychometric testing (pp. 953–986). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118489772.ch30. Erstad, O., & Siddiq, F. (2023). Educational assessment of 21st century skills—novel initiatives, yet a lack of systemic transformation, Editor(s): Robert J Tierney, Fazal Rizvi, Kadriye Erkican, International Encyclopedia of Education (Fourth Edition), Elsevier, 2023, Pages 245-255, ISBN 9780128186299, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.09038-2. Kravik, R., Berg, T., & Siddiq, F. (2022). Teachers’ understanding of programming and computational thinking in primary education – A critical need for professional development. Acta Didactica Norden. https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.9194 Voogt, J., & Roblin, N.P., (2012). A comparative analysis of international frameworks for 21st century competences: implications for national curriculum policies. J. Curric. Stud. 44 (3), 299–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2012.668938