Assessing elementary students’ computational thinking in everyday reasoning and robotics programming

Guanhua Chen; Ji Shen; Lauren Barth-Cohen; Shiyan Jiang; Xiaoting Huang; Moataz Mohamed Eltoukhy

doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2017.03.001

Assessing elementary students’ computational thinking in everyday reasoning and robotics programming

Guanhua Chen, Ji Shen, Lauren Barth-Cohen, Shiyan Jiang, Xiaoting Huang, Moataz Mohamed Eltoukhy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

59 Scopus citations

Abstract

Based on a framework of computational thinking (CT) adapted from Computer Science Teacher Association's standards, an instrument was developed to assess fifth grade students' CT. The items were contextualized in two types of CT application (coding in robotics and reasoning of everyday events). The instrument was administered as a pre and post measure in an elementary school where a new humanoid robotics curriculum was adopted by their fifth grade. Results show that the instrument has good psychometric properties and has the potential to reveal student learning challenges and growth in terms of CT.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	162-175
Number of pages	14
Journal	Computers and Education
Volume	109
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.03.001
State	Published - Jun 1 2017

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Keywords

Computational thinking
Evaluation methodologies
Programming and programming languages
Robotics education

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Science(all)
Education

Cite this

Chen, G., Shen, J., Barth-Cohen, L., Jiang, S., Huang, X., & Eltoukhy, M. M. (2017). Assessing elementary students’ computational thinking in everyday reasoning and robotics programming. Computers and Education, 109, 162-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.03.001

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Access to Document

10.1016/j.compedu.2017.03.001