Assessing Computational Thinking: A Systematic Review of the Literature

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Contemporary Topics in Computer Science Education Research

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) has been recognized as an essential part of every child's education (Wing, 2006). The way to assess CT skills is still under discussion and more research is needed to examine its application into STEM education. Therefore, a systematic literature review was conducted on 53 studies examining how researchers measured CT skills in a variety of contexts. The results indicated that many CT constructs have not been sufficiently measured and the transfer of CT to broader STEM subjects has not been fully explored. Validation studies are also needed for CT assessments in order to promote CT assessments in a large scale testing environment. This study provides a future research agenda on large gaps in current CT assessments.

Authors

• Xiaodan Tang, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Yue Yin, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Qiao Lin, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Roxana Hadad, Northeastern Illinois University