The second aim of this study was to gain insight into primary school students' actual ICT competences and to identify the gender and
socioeconomic differences that exist in students' ICT competences. The results of this study indicate that primary school students have
particular difficulties in higher-order ICTcompetences that focus on communicating in a sociallyacceptable and clearly understandableway.
These results confirm earlier research of Claroet al. (2012) who found that ICTactivities, such as publishing a post or writing an e-mail that is
adequate in content requires a high level of ICTcompetence compared to other activities, such as searching for information. In this context,
this study confirms that students can easily find information using a search index, the menu of a website or a search engine. However, the
ability to use a search engine seems to be related to the number of keywords required to obtain a correct search result. More specifically,
children experience fewer problems conducting a searchwith one keyword thanwith morethan one. Kuiperet al. (2005) state that students
experience more problems using keywords to find digital Information than browsing the Internet. More specifically, students find it difficult
to choose the right keyword in a structured and systematic way. In our opinion, this is also related to the freedom that comes with a search
engine in terms of being a less structured application compared to a search indexor the menu of awebsite. Students should first learn to use
applications with a specifically designed interface that guides and structures their searching behavior and use of keywords. Afterwards, they
can use the acquired searching strategies in other applications where they are free to roam. Furthermore, this study indicates that students
also experience difficulties in assessing and judging the relevance of the information that they found. With regard to technical ICT skills, it
appears that some basic ICTskills are more difficult to master than some higher-order learning-process oriented ICTcompetences. However,
on the overall test, students seem to score higher on the technical ICTskills than on the higher-order learning-oriented ICTcompetences. As
such, our data illustrate that technical skills on average are easier to master than the higher-order learning-process oriented ICT compe-
tences (with regard to digital information searching and processing, and digital communication). It is important to mention that some items
that were intended to measure the same higher-order ICT competence yielded different results. A possible explanation is that students'
experience and familiarity with specific applications and software makes it easier for them to show their ability in a certain ICT activity
compared to showing the same ability using less-known applications. Although we took this into account during the test development,
future research should investigate the effect of application familiarity and experience on ICT competences, and take these results into
account when new assessment tasks are being developed. Another explanation is that the developed items did not entirely measure the
essence of the ICTcompetence they were intended to measure. For example, if two items were expected to measure the same higher-order
ICTcompetence, it is possible that one item focused on the essence of the higher-order ICTcompetence whereas the other referred more to a
similar competence or an underlying technical skill. As such, future research should further investigate the construct validity of the
developed items.