Exploring the relationship between educational ICT resources, student engagement, and academic performance: A multilevel structural equation analysis based on PISA 2018 data

Increasing investment in educational ICT resources is a strategy adopted worldwide to improve student performance in the digital era. Nevertheless, whether the investment is effective and how to realize its positive effect remains unclear. To address these limitations, the dataset of PISA 2018 in five countries and regions with superior academic performance was used, and multilevel structural equation modelling was applied. The results indicated that, first, educational ICT resources are negatively associated with student academic performance. Second, educational ICT resources positively correlate with cognitive-motivational, curriculum-based engagement, and non-curricular engagement. School and home educational ICT resources exhibit strong associations with curriculum-based and cognitive-motivational engagement, respectively. Third, student engagement mediates the relationship between educational ICT resources and academic performance, and this mediating role is different at the school level and the student level. Last, the above relationships show heterogeneities across research countries and regions. Practical implications for governments, schools, and teachers were discussed.