DIGITAL LITERACY COMPETENCE AS A PREDICTOR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT IN 21ST CENTURY MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM

Abstract

This study investigated the extent digital literacy competence predicts secondary school students'  achievement in 21st century mathematics classroom in Aba Education Zone. The correlation survey design was adopted. The study was guided by three research questions and two null hypotheses which were tested at 0.05 alpha levels. The sample consisted of 984 SS3 students (488 male and 496 female) which was selected using multi-stage sampling procedure from a population of 13,074 Senior Secondary School Three (SS3) students in public secondary school in Aba Education Zone. Digital Literacy Competence Questionnaire (DLCQ) adapted from Moses (2023) with reliability coefficients of 0.77 determined using Cronbach Alpha method and Students’ Grade Chart in Mathematics were used to collect data. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and multiple regression. The findings from the study showed that digital literacy competence predicts secondary school students’ achievement in Mathematics and gender does not significantly influence the predictive validity of digital literacy competence on secondary school students’ achievement in mathematics. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with teacher-training institutes, should organize regular ICT-based workshops for mathematics teachers.