Investigating the Current Gender Gap in ICT among Students
(A Comparative Study of Eight Countries)
Abstract
The study of gender differences in ICT-related factors has been a core topic in education in the last several decades. Given the rapid development and infiltration of ICT, the purpose of this study is to investigate the current extent of the gender differences in seven key areas of ICT: use for entertainment, use for educational purposes, use at school, interest, perceived competence, perceived autonomy, and as a topic in social interaction. This study used data from the 2018 administration of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). A total of 37,892 students from eight countries were analyzed to examine the current gender gap. The findings suggest that, overall, significant gender differences were found in six of the seven key areas of ICT, in favor of boys. In all countries under investigation, boys surpassed girls in ICT entertainment use, perceived competence, autonomy, and ICT as a topic in their social interactions.
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