The effect of ICT use on students’ academic achievement continues to be debated. While positive, negative, and non-significant linear relationships have been reported in the literature, few studies have examined the non-linear relationship between ICT use and academic achievement. Guided by the Opportunity-Propensity framework, this study addressed this gap by examining the non-linear relationships between four types of ICT use and students’ academic achievement. A two-level multiple indicators multiple causes model was conducted using Mplus version 8.0 on a representative sample of 15-year-old Hong Kong secondary students (N = 6,037, mean age = 15.73 years, 48.9% girls) from 152 schools. The results showed a linear, negative link between ICT use at school and ∩-shape links between ICT use for outside-of-school learning (with the peak at the 50 percentile), ICT use for leisure (with the peak at the 80 percentile), and using ICT as a topic in social interactions (with the peak at the 1 percentile) and their academic achievement. These findings suggest that stakeholders should always take caution when promoting ICT use at school and ensure that its use does not interfere with students’ learning activities outside of school. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier.

Despite the common belief that information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to support certain fundamental changes in learning, few have examined ICT implementation conceptually within a wider context of educational change. Methodologically, researchers are by and large limited to building simple models that accommodate only a single dependence relationship among variables. Framing ICT implementation as a process of interactions among pedagogical and organisational factors in bringing about changes in student learning, this article used data collected from 1076 teachers in 130 primary and secondary government schools in Hong Kong to construct a structural equation model (SEM), from which the authors are able to examine multiple interrelated dependence relationships in a single model. Results indicated that from teacher perspectives, the collegial capacity of ICT implementation strategies played a central and mediating role in effecting changes in student learning, of moving away from a teacher-centred approach to one that is more student-centred. Specifically, ICT brought about these changes in the context of establishing collegiality in fostering pedagogical innovations in schools. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.
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