When teachers overestimate: Unpacking media and information literacy gaps in Vietnamese secondary schools

Abstract

While Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is paramount in the digital transformation of education, empirical evidence on the alignment between teacher assessments and student self-perceptions of MIL remains scarce. Adopting a dual-perspective, cross-sectional design with two independent (non-dyadic) samples, this study examined the perceptual discrepancy in MIL competencies and identified the behavioural predictors of student MIL. Data were collected from 277 high school students and 126 teachers across four schools in central Vietnam. Independent samples t-tests revealed a systematic overestimation by teachers, who rated students' overall MIL significantly higher (M = 4.07, SD = 0.56) than students rated themselves (M = 3.86, SD = 0.64), t(401) = 3.28, p < 0.001, d = 0.36. K-means clustering of teachers' self-reported MIL yielded three profiles whose ratings of students differed substantially (η² = 0.68), revealing how teachers' own MIL self-concept co-shapes their assessment of students. A Random Forest model (R² = 0.38) identified purposeful Internet use for learning, IT proficiency, and learning engagement as the strongest predictors of MIL, whereas device ownership and Internet time were not predictive. The findings reposition MIL as a process-oriented competence and indicate that teacher-education programmes should pair evidence-based MIL assessment tools with subject-integrated digital learning tasks rather than relying on observable exposure cues.