Significance of students' net access in class for their academic self-control

The neo-liberal turn in educational thinking has weakened the unitary nature of the Nordic model of education. In terms of consumer orientation and state regulation and control, Finland and Norway/Sweden represent opposite ends of a continuum. Teachers are highly respected in Finland, but not in Norway and Sweden. Results from international comparative tests reveal a gap between the excellent Finnish results and the average Norwegian and Swedish ones. At the same time, Norway and Sweden have invested heavily in educational technologies, in comparison to the more modest Finnish initiatives. One core educational objective is the acquisition of abstract knowledge which demands sustained self-control in academic work. However, many students experience a conflict between their academic ambitions and their digital activities. We ask: To what extent is the current provision of Internet access in class positively related to this sense of conflict, and how is this conflict related to studentsí self-control in Finland versus Norway/Sweden? In what ways are the associations between distinct quality aspects of teaching and studentsí self-control different in Finland as compared to Norway/Sweden? Structural equation modelling was carried out and the results compared based on 3400 student answers to a questionnaire administered in 60 secondary schools in Finland and Norway/Sweden. The results show a moderately positive relation between net-access and a sense of school-net conflict in Norway/Sweden, but zero association in Finland. In turn, there is a larger negative association between a sense of school-net conflict and studentsí self-control in Norway /Sweden than in Finland.