Computational Thinking Assessment Development for the Middle Grades

• In Event: 64.030 - Engineering and Computer Science in K–12 Contexts

Abstract

This work presents the development of a computational thinking (CT) assessment, conducting an IRT analysis of items from both the English version of the CTt and the 2016 UK version of the Bebras challenge task set appropriate for use with U.S. middle grades. We demonstrated that while the CTt and Bebras items were developed for two differing goals and using different general designs, they work together as a unidimensional model to form a complimentary instrument in terms of item response characteristics. Finally, we were successful in reducing the number of items to 25, resulting in an instrument that has the flexibility to be used under typical instructional time constraints.

Authors

• Eric N. Wiebe, North Carolina State University

• Jennifer London, North Carolina State University

• Osman Aksit, North Carolina State University

• Kristy E Boyer

• Bradford Mott, North Carolina State University

• James Lester, North Carolina State University