Exhibits 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, and 14.8 presents teachers’ reports on the frequency they do activities on computers to support learning during mathematics and science lessons, together with average achievement by frequency. Across both grades and subjects, 5 to 9 percent of students on average are in classes in which their teacher reported doing computer activities to support learning “every day or almost every day,” 10 to 14 percent had teachers who reported “once or twice a week,” 13 to 21 percent “once or twice a month,” and 56 to 68 percent “never or almost never.”

Teachers reported doing computer activities more frequently in science lessons than in mathematics lessons. Although 60 percent of fourth grade students (Exhibit 14.6) and 56 percent of eighth grade students (Exhibit 14.8) had science teachers who said they “never or almost never” did computer activities to support learning, 67 percent of fourth grade students (Exhibit 14.5) and 68 percent of eighth grade students (Exhibit 14.7) had mathematics teachers who reported “never or almost never” doing computer activities to support learning. Though few students are in classes where computers are used on a frequent basis, there was a substantial range across countries. For example, in fourth grade mathematics, on average only 7 percent of students’ mathematics teachers said they use computers to support learning “every day or almost every day,” on average, but more than 25 percent did so in Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States.

Students in classes where teachers “never or almost never” used computers to support learning had the lowest achievement, on average. At both the fourth and the eighth grades, there was a 10-point difference in average mathematics achievement as well as average science achievement between students in the two lowest categories. Beyond that, the relationship with achievement varied across grades and subjects. In fourth grade mathematics (Exhibit 14.5) and eighth grade science (Exhibit 14.8), students with teachers who did computer activities “every day or almost every day” had the highest average achievement compared to students in the other three categories (515 vs. 509, 510, and 500 for fourth grade mathematics; 509 vs. 495, 497, and 487 for eighth grade science), while in fourth grade science (Exhibit 14.6), average achievement was similar for students in the “every day or almost every day,” “once or twice a week,” and “once or twice a month” categories (498, 498, and 500, respectively). In eighth grade mathematics (Exhibit 14.7), students in the two highest frequency categories had the same average achievement (505), which was higher than for students in the “once or twice a month” (497) and “never or almost never” (487) categories.