International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract—Despite the growing integration of digital technologies in education, their impact on primary students’ media literacy, academic achievement, and engagement remains underexplored. The main objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-supported critical thinking pedagogy in enhancing media literacy, academic achievement, and engagement among primary school students. The study involved 106 primary school students. The experimental group was taught using ICT-based critical thinking pedagogy over 12 weeks. Assessment included a media literacy test, an engagement questionnaire, classroom observations, analysis of academic performance in Natural Science, and evaluation of the effectiveness of digital tools. The experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in media literacy (Cronbach’s α = 0.82), engagement, and academic achievement compared to the control group. Specifically, media literacy improved by +17.6 points (p < 0.001), and engagement increased by +1.1 points (p < 0.001), while the control group’s gains were +3.5 and +0.3, respectively. An increase in academic achievement in Natural Science was also observed (Δ = +13.6, p < 0.001). Observations of learning activities and digital tool use confirmed more active and critical participation of students in the experimental group. The results demonstrate that ICT pedagogy focused on critical thinking effectively improves students’ media literacy, academic performance, and engagement. This study highlights its potential to inform curriculum design and teaching strategies, providing valuable insights for enhancing learning outcomes in primary education.

Keywords—academic achievement, engagement, enhancing, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-supported critical thinking pedagogy, media literacy, primary education

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Cite: Laura Kozhakhanova, Amina Amirova, Gulden Yespolova, Gulnara Omarova, Saule Zhorayeva, and Askarbek Kussainov, "Enhancing Media Literacy, Academic Achievement, and Engagement in Primary Education through ICT-Supported Critical Thinking Pedagogy," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 991-999, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).