TechCheck-K: A Measure of Computational Thinking for Kindergarten Children

The Competent Computational Thinking Test: Development and Validation of an Unplugged Computational Thinking Test for Upper Primary School

“…Brennan and Resnick (2012) decompose CT into: (i) computational concepts (the concepts most closely related to computer science and programming, that is, “sequences, loops, parallelism, events, conditionals, operators, and data”), (ii) computational practices (the strategies and practices required to be apply said concepts), and (iii) computational perspectives (“the perspectives designers form about the world around them and about themselves”). While CT is traditionally considered to be the “thought processes that facilitate framing and solving problems using computers and other technologies” (Relkin & Bers, 2021), more and more researchers argue that CT is not specific to “those interested in computer science and mathematics”. These researchers consider that CT has a “multi-faceted theoretical nature” and can be considered more generally as an example of “models of thinking” (Li et al, 2020).…”

“…With this “tremendous growth in curricula, learning environments, and innovations around CT education” (Weintrop et al, 2021), the design of tools to assess CT competences in a developmentally appropriate and reliable way throughout compulsory education becomes crucial (Hsu et al, 2018). Indeed, “CT assessment is important [to document] learning progress, [measure] lesson effectiveness, [assist] in curriculum development and [help] identify students in need of greater assistance or enrichment” (Relkin & Bers, 2021). As CT is also becoming popular among K-9 educators (Chen et al, 2017; Mannila et al, 2014), it is also paramount to develop assessments for that age range.…”

“…As CT is also becoming popular among K-9 educators (Chen et al, 2017; Mannila et al, 2014), it is also paramount to develop assessments for that age range. Indeed, as mentioned by Relkin and Bers (2021), “one of the greatest challenges to integrating CT into early elementary school education has been a lack of validated, developmentally appropriate assessments to measure young students’ CT skills in classroom and online settings” (Lockwood & Mooney, 2017; Román-González et al, 2019). Assessment tools should therefore be adapted for use, not only by researchers looking to design CT learning experiences (Weintrop et al, 2021) and investigate how best to foster CT competences (Chevalier et al, 2020), but also by teachers aiming to ensure that their students are acquiring the desired competences, and this starting from kindergarten onward (Zapata-Cáceres et al, 2020).…”

“…The most common approach seems to consist in the use of portfolios to “analys[e] projects performed by students in specific programming environments” (Tang et al, 2020). Unfortunately, assessment tools following this approach carry the risk of “conflating CT with coding abilities” (Relkin & Bers, 2021), which may limit their use in (i) pre-post test designs (Chen et al, 2017), (ii) when validating new learning environments, and (iii) in cases where Computer Science (CS) unplugged activities (Bell & Vahrenhold, 2018) are employed to develop students’ CT competences 2 . Because of the transversal nature of Computational Thinking and the “variety of methods by which CT is taught and contexts in which students learn CT” (Weintrop et al, 2021), researchers advocate the development of CT tests that go beyond self-reporting, and are more general (Tikva & Tambouris, 2021).…”

The state of the field of computational thinking in early childhood education

“…Although computational thinking (CT) has received considerable attention over the past several years, there is little agreement on what a definition for CT might encompass (Barr and Stephenson, 2011[11]; Grover and Pea, 2013 [12]; Guzdial, 2008[13]; National Research Council, 2010 [14]; Relkin, 2018 [15]; Relkin and Bers, 2019 [16]; Shute, Sun and Asbell-Clarke, 2017 [17]). The notion of CT encompasses a broad set of analytic and problem solving skills, dispositions, habits, and approaches most often used in computer science, but that can serve in multiple other contexts (Barr, Harrison and Conery, 2011[18]; Barr and Stephenson, 2011[11]; Lee et al, 2011[19]).…”