Exploring the effects of technology-supported collaborative inquiry and students’ ICT competency on scientific literacy and subject knowledge in rural science classrooms

Abstract Technology-supported collaborative inquiry has notable potential to enhance students’ scientific literacy and subject knowledge. However, most technological supports have been conducted in non-rural science classrooms, with their effectiveness in rural classrooms remaining underexplored. Rural students exhibit varying levels of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competency, and the impact on technology-supported science classrooms warrants further exploration. To address these gaps, this study adopted a six-week experiment to conduct technology-supported collaborative inquiry activities in two eighth-grade classes, with a total of 101 students at a rural secondary school in China. Using a 2 × 2 quasi-experiment design, this study investigated the effects of different experimental interventions and levels of ICT competency on students’ scientific literacy and subject knowledge. Students in the experiment class ( n = 48) used a structured collaborative inquiry platform, i.e., WeInquiry, to conduct, record, and share their learning progress, while the students in the comparison class ( n = 53) completed the same activities without the platform support. The results showed that technology-supported collaborative inquiry and students’ ICT competency were both conducive to promoting rural students’ scientific literacy. Further, the interactive effects of the experimental interventions and students’ ICT competency significantly influenced their scientific literacy and subject knowledge. The findings suggest that considering different ICT competencies, technology-supported collaborative inquiry activities can positively impact students’ science learning in rural classrooms. More studies are needed to explore how to integrate technological tools to better support science education in rural classrooms, with a particular focus on the influences of students’ ICT competencies.