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

With the increasing importance of Computational Thinking (CT) at all levels of education, it is essential to have valid and reliable assessments. Currently, there is a lack of such assessments in upper primary school. That is why we present the development and validation of the competent CT test (cC...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: El-Hamamsy, Laila, Zapata-Cáceres, María, Martín-Barroso, Estefanía, Mondada, Francesco, Zufferey, Jessica Dehler, Bruno, Barbara
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Repositorio:BURJC-Digital. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
OAI Identifier:oai:burjcdigital.urjc.es:10115/29985
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10115/29985
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Computational Thinking
assessment
primary education
expert evaluation
psychometric validation
Descripción
Sumario:With the increasing importance of Computational Thinking (CT) at all levels of education, it is essential to have valid and reliable assessments. Currently, there is a lack of such assessments in upper primary school. That is why we present the development and validation of the competent CT test (cCTt), an unplugged CT test targeting 7–9 year-old students. In the first phase, 37 experts evaluated the validity of the cCTt through a survey and focus group. In the second phase, the test was administered to 1519 students. We employed Classical Test Theory, Item Response Theory, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis to assess the instruments’ psychometric properties. The expert evaluation indicates that the cCTt shows good face, construct, and content validity. Furthermore, the psychometric analysis of the student data demonstrates adequate reliability, difficulty, and discriminability for the target age groups. Finally, shortened variants of the test are established through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. To conclude, the proposed cCTt is a valid and reliable instrument, for use by researchers and educators alike, which expands the portfolio of validated CT assessments across compulsory education. Future assessments looking at capturing CT in a more exhaustive manner might consider combining the cCTt with other forms of assessments.