Students’ Self-Efficacy in General ICT Use as a Mediator Between Computer Experience, Learning ICT at School, ICT Use in Class, and Computer and Information Literacy

Abstract

Self-efficacy is related to a specific domain and is a result of capabilities and beliefs of one’s own performance in a specific domain given a specific task, depending on the levels of anxiety, motivation, feeling of success, and positive and negative rewards. Computer experience, the learning of information and communication technology tasks at school, and the use of general applications in class are known to be related to computer and information literacy. This study investigates the mediation effect of student computer self-efficacy in using general applications in these relationships using a structural equation model. The data used in this study stems from nine European educational systems participating in the International Computer and Information Literacy Study in 2018. The results show that in nearly all educational systems, the self-efficacy regarding the use of general applications has significant mediation effects in the relationship between computer and information literacy and each of the three information and communication technology variables in the model. The mediation effects are strongest for general applications in class and weakest for learning of information and communication technology tasks at school. The results are discussed against the educational systems’ context with recommendations for improving student computer self-efficacy.