ICT, Motivation, and Academic Performance in Elementary Education: Meta-analysis, Literature Review, and State of the Art

As in countries such as Sweden, some Spanish schools are on a diatribe about removing digital devices from elementary education classrooms. The recent PISA 2023 report warns of a slump in the academic performance of Spanish students, identifying that increasing exposure to screens could contribute to students being "distracted for longer periods." Along the same lines, the PIRLS 2021 report already concluded that Spanish students between 9 and 10 years of age have experienced a drop of 7 points in recent years, associating this to the distractions that exposure to screens and Internet connection may be generating in class. The present research seeks to examine, through a meta -analysis and review of the scientific literature, the positions of researchers in the last five years (2019-2023) about the incorporation of ICT in primary education classrooms. The results reveal that most of the quasi -experimental studies (n=10) on the correlation between the use of digital resources, engagement, and academic performance have been positive, especially if this incorporation of ICT is accompanied by methodological strategies such as gamification, flipped classroom, or Project Based Learning (PBL). Factors such as the design of digital resources, the age of the teaching staff, and the lack of adequate training are identified as determining factors in the preference for ICT methodologies.