Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 60, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 335-346
Computers & Education

Computers and the academic performance of elementary school-aged girls in China's poor communities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.08.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Experts agree that computers and computing play an important role in education. Since the 1980s there has been a debate about gender as it relates to computers and education. However, results regarding gender differences concerning computer use in education are not consistent. In particular there is little work done in China on this issue. Therefore, the overall goal of this paper is to demonstrate whether girls and boys can gain equally from computer-based education in China's elementary schools. To do so we analyze results from three randomized field experiments of a Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) program and One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. The field experiments are carried out in three kinds of schools: Shannxi rural public schools; Qinghai minority public schools; and Beijing migrant schools. Although CAL and OLPC have been considered cost effective means to improve learning outcomes, it is not known whether the programs impact girls differently than boys. Our analysis shows that, in fact, there were no differences between female and male students in either the improvement in standardized math test scores or Chinese test scores with either the CAL or OLPC programs. Our study suggests that among disadvantaged students in China's rural areas and migrant communities, there is reason to believe that computer based learning can benefit both girls and boys equally. This finding has possible implications for China's ongoing efforts to integrate computers and computing technologies into the nation's underserved schools.

Highlights

► Compares impact by gender of Computer learning programs. ► Based on 3 randomized experiments in China's rural, public, and migrant schools. ► Results show no test score gap between female and male students for any program. ► Suggests that computer based learning benefits disadvantaged boys and girls equally. ► Has implications for China's efforts to bring technology into underserved schools.

Introduction

The rapid diffusion of computers has changed nearly every aspect of contemporary life, from work to education and health (Levine & Donitsa-Schmidt, 1998). As a consequence, today's education systems are charged with teaching children how to use computers as part of the overall education process (Baouendi & Wilson, 1989). In addition (and perhaps more importantly), it is thought that children in school can use computers as an effective learning tool and as a way to improve their overall education (Castro & Alves, 2007). In these ways, the literature suggests that computers are making an ever-increasing impact on many aspects of cognition and learning (Volman, Eck, Heemskerk, & Kuiper, 2005).

Since the 1980s, gender has been the focus of research on computer learning (Tengku Faekah, 2005). According to Kay (1993), users must have a certain level of will and recognize the utility of computers in order to successfully learn how to use them. As a consequence, the attitudes of students toward computing and their computer knowledge and skills are two factors that are closely related to the successful use of computers in education (Woodrow, Mayer-Smith, & Pedretti, 1996). For this reason, researchers have explored the differences between males and female students regarding computer attitudes, knowledge and skills (Janssen & Plomb, 1997).

Are there differences across genders regarding student computer skills and attitudes toward computers? Insofar as computer skills are concerned, the evidence from existing research is consistent: female (in general) significantly lag behind male when judging their computer skills (Tengku Faekah, 2005).

The literature, however, is more nuanced when examining differences between genders with respect to attitudes toward computers. A large body of research, such as Barba and Mason (1994), Yaghi (1997) and Bovée, Voogt, and Meelissen (2007), shows that male students have more favorable attitudes toward computers. According to Bovée et al. (2007), in general, female students appear to be more anxious with computers and regard the computer as more difficult to deal with than male students. Most female students (in this case, secondary students) feel less confident with the use of computer than their male counterparts. Other studies indicate that there are differences in the ways that male and female students “like” computers or perceive their usefulness (Robertson, Calder, Fung, Jones, & O’Shea, 1995).

In contrast, other research teams have found no significant differences in attitudes toward computers with respect to gender. Hunt and Bohlin (1993) discovered that females and males did not display significant disparities in terms of any of the four types of attitudes toward computers (i.e., liking, comfort, confidence and perceived usefulness). This is true in both developed and developing countries. Bovée et al. (2007) found in a study of 240 students from South Africa that there were no gender differences in the attitudes of boys and girls regarding computers. Neither male nor female students were anxious toward the computers. Both enjoyed working with computers and regarded computers as useful tools for their lives.

In a small minority of studies researchers have found that females have a more positive attitude toward computers than males. For example, according to McGrath and Thurston (1992), female students were found to have more favorable attitude toward computers compared with the male students. Female students also were more interested in computers than male students. Tengku Faekah (2005) also found one case in which female students, more than male students, believed computers would be more useful in their future lives. This literature has raised the question: Does the fact that researchers have detected differences between genders regarding student computer skills and attitudes toward computers have implications for whether boys and girls can gain equally from computer-based education?

Perhaps surprisingly there is little work done in China on this particular issue. This is unexpected because the actions of the government demonstrate that putting computers in the classroom as a way to enhance learning is a priority in the coming years. In the 12th Five Year Plan, for example, the government will spend billions of dollars putting computers in every classroom (IDC, 2011). Computers are one of the key platforms of the Ministry of Education's strategic plan. At the same time there is concern about achieving gender equality in China. As both a millennium goal and a matter of basic national policy, China's leaders are committed to gender equality in education (Guo, 2011). Despite this, Pang, Zeng, and Rozelle (in press) has shown that there is still considerable gender inequality in China—especially regarding educational attainment.

The overall goal of this paper is to demonstrate whether there is any gender differential in terms of how girls are able to learn when using computers in China's elementary schools. In most general terms, we are seeking to answer two broad questions. Are there differences between young boys and young girls regarding student computer skills and attitudes toward computers? If so, do these differences have implications for whether boys and girls can gain equally from computer-based education?

To meet this goal and answer these questions, we draw on the results of three randomized controlled trials. Although the three studies were implemented in three different environments—migrant communities outside of Beijing; poor rural mountainous region in Shaanxi Province that is populated mostly by China's ethnic majority Han; and a poor region in Qinghai province that is populated mostly by non-Han ethnic minorities—in each place the intervention was nearly the same. Students in half of the study schools (the treatment schools) participated in a Computer Assisted Learning program (or CAL, for short) while students in the remaining half (the control schools) did not. Students in both treatment and control schools were given standardized math and/or Chinese language tests before and after the intervention. In this paper we look at how third, fourth and fifth grade female students performed in the treatment and control schools by looking at changes in standardized test scores between the baseline and endline surveys and compare their performance to the performance of their male students classmates in each grade.

We also examine gender differentials in a fourth experiment which randomly assigned laptop computers to 150 students and did not give anything to a set of 150 control students.

Section snippets

Sampling, intervention, data and methods

In this section we do four things. First, we briefly describe the sampling process and the final sample that is used in each of the three RCTs. This subsection is purposely because since there are detailed appendices describing the sampling for each of the three RCTs. The second subsection describes the intervention that was implemented in each of the three study locations. The third subsection describes the data collection. Although we report on findings from three different study sites,

Results

In this section we will do two things. First, we review the results of the previous CAL studies and demonstrate the effectiveness of the CAL intervention in three different schooling environments. Second, we will turn to the main questions of this paper: Do young female students perform as well as young male students when they participate in CAL programs?

Learning on one's own laptop: do young girls learn as well as young boys?

It is quite clear from the analyses in the previous section that when young girls are exposed to Computer Assisted Learning in a school setting (in any one of many different school settings), young girls learn as well as young boys. However, this leaves open the question of whether a similar outcome is possible if the computers were available at home (instead of school).

In this section we examine the gender impacts of a One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project that we conducted ourselves in 2011

Conclusion

In this paper we present the gender difference results from a randomized field experiment of a Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) program and OLPC program involving three kinds of schools (Beijing migrant schools, Shannxi rural public schools and Qinghai minority public schools). The total number of students involved in our survey is 9356, Beijing migrant schools account for 44 percent, Shannxi rural public schools account for 28 percent, Qinghai minority rural public schools account for 28

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge Dell Inc., Acer Computers, ADOC 2.0, Quanta Computing, Tianhua Shidai, Target Foundation, Adobe, TAG Family Foundation, China Children and Teenagers' Fund, Bowei Lee and Family, Mary Ann Millias St. Peters, and two anonymous private donors for their generous support for REAP's Technology and Human Capital theme area. The hard work of dozens of volunteers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Northwest University of Xi’an, and Qinghai Minorities University

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