Title
Measuring achievement of ICT competency for students in Korea
Abstract
In the current information society, the need for securing human resources acquired with ICT competency is becoming a very important issue. In USA, England, Japan, India and Israel improving students' ICT competency has become a pedagogical issue. Accordingly, education on ICT competency is changing in many countries emphasizing the basis of computer science. The Korean government revised the ICT curriculum of 2001 focused on the basic concepts and principles of computer science as educational policy in 2005. However, it is still difficult to determine a student's ICT competency level and the outcome of ICT curriculum based on changed direction. Thereupon, this study has developed test tool for measuring the level of Korean elementary school students' ICT competency based on computer science. In this study, 'Content' and 'Information processing' are established as the two axes of the test frame standard through literature research, consideration and discussion. The validity and reliability of questions are verified though the preliminary test and the main test tool has completed through question revisions considering the distribution of answers. About 40,000 students, roughly 1% of the total elementary school students, are selected for the main test. There were several findings made in this study. Korea's elementary school students have a weakness in 'algorithm and modeling'. Information processing stage has been found to vary by grade. A modified 'Angoff method' is used to confirm the spread of the ICT competency levels of the target students. From the results, the cutoff score employed to divide the subjects into three levels, excellent, average and below average, the ratio of excellent levels decreases and the ratio of below average increases in higher grades. To solve these problems, we need to emphasize algorithmic thinking oriented more principal of computer science in ICT curriculum. For more effective ICT elementary education, teaching and learning strategies appropriate for young children to teach computer science should be introduced.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1016/j.compedu.2010.11.003
Computers & Education
Keywords
Field
DocType
information processing,elementary education,human resource,education policy
Competence (human resources),Knowledge level,Information technology,Computer science,Achievement test,Curriculum,Pedagogy,Information and Communications Technology,Mathematics education,Academic achievement,Primary education
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
56
4
Computers & Education
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
12
0.86
4
Authors
12
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
SeungEun Cha1171.96
Soo Jin Jun2131.25
Dai Yong Kwon3141.24
Han-Sung Kim4554.60
Seung Bum Kim5120.86
JaMee Kim6141.58
Young Ae Kim732313.55
SunGwan Han8284.41
Soon Sik Seo9120.86
Woo Cheon Jun10120.86
Hyun Cheol Kim11120.86
Won Gyu Lee12242.70