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Need for ICT Use in Classroom as a Response to Cognitive Style Change in Children
thing that is neither liked nor disliked, lest as something that is strongly dis-
liked. If such high percentage of those disliking school is to be found in 5th
and 6th graders, with a noticeable downward trend, what could we expect
to find in higher grades? A change that would enable children to experience
school as a pleasant place, where they like to spend their time, is becoming
a clear priority.
When asked how they learned, it is evident that most children (76.7) use
classical repetitive approach that consists of reading several times and op-
tionally highlighting important parts of a lesson. On the other hand, 41.5 of
children would change the learning method used in school. While keeping
in mind the fact that, on average, pupils spend several hours a day using new
technology devices (workday: 1.9 h using a smartphone and 1.4h using a com-
puter; weekend: 3.3 h using a smartphone and 1.9 h using a computer), we will
discuss the necessity of integrating an ICT-based new learning method into
everyday school environment.
An important question is raised: What kind of learning and knowledge ac-
quisition method would correspond to the needs of modern children? If we
acknowledge the generational trend of hyper attention, and the screen as
the second nature of their perception, it comes as no surprise that children
frequently experience boredom in school settings. Many regard boredom as
a modern disease. We have school environment that still highly values and
encourages the cognitive mode of deep attention on the one hand and chil-
dren who mostly function in the hyper attentive mode, and are on the con-
stant quest to novel stimulation, on the other. Boredom occurs when one
is not able to successfully engage attention with internal or external infor-
mation (Eastwood et al. 2012). Furthermore, how could a child who mostly
functions on the hyper attention end of the spectrum be almost constantly
engaged in activities that require deep attention? Do we have the right to
expect that?
Boredom has been found to relate to dropout at school (Bearden, Spencer,
and Moracco 1989), truancy (Sommer 1985), deviance (Wasson 1981) and ju-
venile delinquency (Newberry and Duncan 2001). Middle-school students re-
port feelings of boredom during 32 of the time spent in class (Larson and
Richard 1991) while in some studies, this percentage is much higher, reach-
ing as much as 58 (Nett, Goetz, and Hall 2011). Moreover, boredom is experi-
enced more frequently by students than anxiety, which is most commonly re-
searched emotion in the education domain (Goetz et al. 2006). That boredom
as an extremely negative state, from which we feel the need to escape, was
demonstrated in an experiment, which indicated that people preferred to be
87
thing that is neither liked nor disliked, lest as something that is strongly dis-
liked. If such high percentage of those disliking school is to be found in 5th
and 6th graders, with a noticeable downward trend, what could we expect
to find in higher grades? A change that would enable children to experience
school as a pleasant place, where they like to spend their time, is becoming
a clear priority.
When asked how they learned, it is evident that most children (76.7) use
classical repetitive approach that consists of reading several times and op-
tionally highlighting important parts of a lesson. On the other hand, 41.5 of
children would change the learning method used in school. While keeping
in mind the fact that, on average, pupils spend several hours a day using new
technology devices (workday: 1.9 h using a smartphone and 1.4h using a com-
puter; weekend: 3.3 h using a smartphone and 1.9 h using a computer), we will
discuss the necessity of integrating an ICT-based new learning method into
everyday school environment.
An important question is raised: What kind of learning and knowledge ac-
quisition method would correspond to the needs of modern children? If we
acknowledge the generational trend of hyper attention, and the screen as
the second nature of their perception, it comes as no surprise that children
frequently experience boredom in school settings. Many regard boredom as
a modern disease. We have school environment that still highly values and
encourages the cognitive mode of deep attention on the one hand and chil-
dren who mostly function in the hyper attentive mode, and are on the con-
stant quest to novel stimulation, on the other. Boredom occurs when one
is not able to successfully engage attention with internal or external infor-
mation (Eastwood et al. 2012). Furthermore, how could a child who mostly
functions on the hyper attention end of the spectrum be almost constantly
engaged in activities that require deep attention? Do we have the right to
expect that?
Boredom has been found to relate to dropout at school (Bearden, Spencer,
and Moracco 1989), truancy (Sommer 1985), deviance (Wasson 1981) and ju-
venile delinquency (Newberry and Duncan 2001). Middle-school students re-
port feelings of boredom during 32 of the time spent in class (Larson and
Richard 1991) while in some studies, this percentage is much higher, reach-
ing as much as 58 (Nett, Goetz, and Hall 2011). Moreover, boredom is experi-
enced more frequently by students than anxiety, which is most commonly re-
searched emotion in the education domain (Goetz et al. 2006). That boredom
as an extremely negative state, from which we feel the need to escape, was
demonstrated in an experiment, which indicated that people preferred to be
87
