National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement - Using Digital Technologies for Teaching and Learning 2016 Key Findings

Introduction
This study was added to NMSSA 2016 as it was a timely opportunity to obtain information about the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning - an emerging area of curriculum development for the Ministry of Education. As the new Digital Technologies Hangarau Matihiko curriculum had not been completed during the time of the study, the investigation was independent of the other learning areas. A section of the questionnaires administered to students, teachers and principals, asked them about the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning. Students were asked about their attitudes toward the use of digital technologies for learning, the opportunities to use digital technologies in school, and access to digital technologies at home. Teachers were asked about their attitudes to the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning, the opportunities for their students to use digital technologies in school, and their perceptions of the effects of using digital technologies for teaching and learning. Principals were asked about their perceptions of the effects of using digital technologies for teaching and learning, and the level of support for implementing digital technologies in school.

Digital technology
In the student questionnaire, the use of digital technologies was referred to as 'learning with digital devices' Learning with digital devices was defined as 'using the Internet, computers, tablets, iPads, notebooks, laptops, smartphones and other digital tools as part of your learning at school'. In the teacher questionnaire, the definition of digital technology was: 'Digital technologies include, but are not limited to, using the Internet, computers, tablets, notebooks, smartphones and other emerging digital tools as part of your teaching programme within the classroom'. In the principal questionnaire, the definition of digital technology was: 'Digital technologies include, but are not limited to, using the Internet, computers, tablets, notebooks, smartphones and other emerging digital tools as part of teaching and learning programmes'.

Study features
NMSSA used a two-step sampling procedure to select 100 schools at each year level and up to 27 students within each school. The nationally representative sample at each year level was made up of about 2,300 students (see Appendix 1, Technical Information 2016 report). The digital technology questionnaire was one of the sections of a computer-based questionnaire administered to all students. An Item Response Theory (IRT) measure called Attitude to Learning with Digital Devices (ALDD) was constructed from the attitude statements of the digital technology questionnaire.

Up to three teachers in each school completed a teacher questionnaire. In total, 231 Year 4 teachers and 270 Year 8 teachers responded. In total, 182 of the 200 principals completed the principal questionnaire. The digital technology questionnaire was one of the sections of pencil-and-paper questionnaires administered to teachers and principals.