Our study, through the initial modern literature review, investigates the assessment and development of Computational Thinking (CT) in education, and especially through interventions using unplugged activities.
As far as the assessment is concerned, many studies state the lack of CT assessment tools which could be used without the presence of a researcher, a conclusion that has also emerged through our research and publications. Our study works towards the goal of the creation of an innovative CT assessment tool, which covers this gap, at least regarding the Greek educational reality.
The CT assessment tool constitutes an important contribution to the greek educational reality and CT, due to the lack of equivalent assessment tools. Therefore, it can be used in our study and by future studies, covering this gap and helping in the evolvement of CT development, which can not exist without valid and reliable assessment tools and methods.
The second part or our study is about the development of CT using unplugged activities (without the use of technology). There is already serious work made in that direction in some countries all over the world, teaching interventions are devised, and support resources have been created. While it appears that such interventions foster the development of CT, there are not many studies that confirm or disprove this conclusion, and this study aspires to fulfill this gap, at least for the greek reality.
Useful conclusions regarding the Greek educational reality are expected to emerge at first, and through the produced results we plan to conclude to structured interventions and improvements of the proposed methods, in order to ensue integrated intervention proposals about CT without using technology in Greece, which covers the range of CT as much as possible.
In general, the review and study are expected to fill some gaps that are already apparent in the literature, to make a valuable contribution through the creation of the assessment tool, but also to suggest future theoretical research directions and questions, as well as to create conditions that will require more research study in the future.