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New technology, new role of parents: How parents' beliefs and behavior affect students’ digital media self-efficacy

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Highlights

  • Self-efficacy is an important prerequisite for students' digital media competence.

  • Besides teachers, parents at home shape students' experiences with digital media.

  • Using expectancy-value model shows link between parent and student digital media beliefs.

  • Parent beliefs predict behaviors including modeling and provision of digital media.

  • Parents' provision of smart phones linked to students' digital media self-efficacy.

Abstract

Increasingly more research is exploring how digital media can be used for teaching but is largely focused on how teachers shape technology use. Besides teachers in the classroom, parents at home may also have a pivotal role in shaping students' beliefs towards digital media which are in turn an important precursor to students' use of technology for learning. Previous research shows parent factors are related to students' ICT self-efficacy; however, the underlying mechanisms explaining these relations are less clear. Following Eccles et al.’s parent socialization model (1983), we investigate whether parents' behaviors including modeling and provision of digital media mediate the relation between parents' beliefs regarding digital media and students' digital media self-efficacy. Data were drawn from parent and student questionnaires collected as part of a study to investigate conditions for successful digital media use in classrooms (N = 1206 students and their parents). Results show while parents' beliefs are related to students' digital media self-efficacy, only parents' provision of smart phones mediates this relation. Findings indicate the importance of parents' beliefs regarding digital media and the need for future research into at home factors that influence students' digital media self-efficacy.

Introduction

There is broad consensus worldwide that students need digital media skills for the future (e.g., European Commission, 2013; Fishman & Dede, 2016; OECD, 2015). However, the results of the 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) indicate that in most countries, the majority of students need support using digital media such as computers to complete basic information-gathering and management tasks. Additionally, across the participating countries, 18 percent of students were found to be working below the lowest level of proficiency, indicating a lack of functional working knowledge of computers as tools. In general, results indicate that students are not well prepared for study, work, and life in a digital world (Fraillon, Ainley, Schulz, Friedman, & Duckworth, 2019).

In order to address students' lack of digital media skills, we need to better understand how these skills are shaped. One important prerequisite is digital media self-efficacy. Self-efficacy beliefs are developed through different sources including students' experiences at home and their interactions with their parents (Bandura, 1977). Accordingly, in the present paper we investigate whether parents' beliefs and behaviors at home regarding digital media relate to students’ digital media self-efficacy.

Section snippets

Digital media self-efficacy

One prerequisite for digital media skills is digital media self-efficacy. Applying the definition from Bong and Skaalvik (2003), digital media self-efficacy can be understood as the extent to which a student believes he or she can successfully operate digital media. It is largely formed by students' prior experiences with using digital devices successfully or not. In line with PISA 2015, digital devices can include desktop computers, portable laptops, notebooks, smart phones, tablet computers,

Research objective

Previous literature applying the parent socialization model (Eccles et al., 1983) has shown the role of parents in shaping students' self-beliefs in domains such as math, sports, and music (Simpkins et al., 2012). However, no research to date has looked whether this model may apply to students' self-beliefs about using digital media. Further using the expectancy-value theory framework, parents' beliefs are examined through task values regarding digital media, including intrinsic, utility, and

Participants and study design

Data was collected within a multi-cohort, longitudinal project that investigates whether and under what conditions digital media enable successful teaching and learning processes in the classroom. The data stemmed from a school initiative which was funded by the Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts of the state of Baden-Württemberg, with the aim to support schools in the effective use of digital media for teaching. All academic track schools across Baden-Württemberg were invited to apply and

Descriptive results

Parents' intrinsic (M = 3.06, SD = 0.69), utility (M = 2.96, SD = 0.59), and attainment (M = 2.31, SD = 0.65) values and emotional costs (M = 1.73, SD = 0.68) were significantly correlated with their children's digital media self-efficacy (M = 2.92, SD = 0.57) as shown in Table 3 (correlations ranged from −0.075 to 0.128). Parents' perceived opportunity cost (M = 1.97, SD = 0.68) did not significantly correlate. Parents who value digital media for being fun, useful, and important, spend more

Discussion

Across the globe, there is widespread recognition that students need digital media skills for the future (e.g. European Commission, 2013; Fishman & Dede, 2016; OECD, 2015). At the same time, results from the recent ICILS study indicate that many students are not developing these skills in school and rather use digital media more often outside of school (Fraillon et al., 2019). These results mirror similar findings using PISA data (Lee & Wu, 2012; Zhong, 2011) that show differences in students'

Limitations

The results cannot be interpreted with regard to causality because we cannot show whether parents' beliefs precede children's beliefs and do not examine whether there is a reciprocal link of child's beliefs affecting parents' beliefs or even child's behaviors affecting parents' behaviors or beliefs. Additionally, further research investigating the role of parents in shaping their children's beliefs regarding digital media should take into account how often parents discuss their beliefs

Funding

Molly Hammer is a doctoral student at the LEAD Research Network [GSC1028], funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments.

Credit author statement

Molly Hammer, Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Methodology, Katharina Scheiter, Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Resources, Kathleen Stürmer, Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Resources.

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