Development and Assessment of Computational Thinking
The abbreviation DACT derives from the initial letters of the terms Development and Assessment of Computational Thinking, expressing this way the main goal of this study: the research, development and assessment of Computational Thinking (CT) of school age children.
S. Papert had initially used the term CT back in 1980, but has attracted recent attention since J. Wing’s article in 2006, with extensive reference to CT. Since then there have been many attempts to further define the term. Many support that CT is the natural evolution of algorithmic thinking, as it was referenced in the decades of the 1950s and the 1960s, and nowadays algorithmic thinking is a concept, among others that compose CT, such as abstraction, decomposition, generalization, evaluation and logic.
Many countries, like the U.S.A. and the U.K., have reformed their computer science school curricula during the 2010-20 decade, integrating CT in them; Greece only recently tries to catch up with the progression, taking into consideration CT in the new pilot curricula that was announced at the end of year 2021.
There is also general acceptance that the basic principles and methods of Computer Science that compose CT, nowadays are present, go through and change the thought processes in all scientific fields. Consequently, they can be applied in education, both in relevant computer science courses and in other courses, different than computer science ones, as well. There are already suggestions of resources that lead towards this direction, as well as studies about the (re)education of teachers, both for those who are already working and those who are still studying, in order to be able to cope with the requirements of the attempt to integrate CT into their daily educational activities.
Two methodologies are usually followed for the development of CT: teaching programming in various forms and teaching without the use of computers or technological facilities. This second option seems to lack studies even worldwide, therefore forms a very interesting field of research.
The doctoral dissertation
This doctoral dissertation initially thoroughly inspects the relevant literature of CT, in various sectors, such as its historical evolution, definition attempts, CT assessment efforts and suggestions for the efficient teaching of CT, as well as the integration of CT in teaching subjects using innovative teaching practices and approaches.
In particular, we designed and planned a research scheme which includes groups of students in order to investigate activities for the development of CT with and without the use of computers (unplugged), aiming at a population of students in the first year of gymnasium (high school), ages 11-12 years old. The goal of this study is to compare the groups and their results. All activities are chosen/created very carefully in order to be equivalent.
Furthermore, the study of relevant literature has revealed the lack of valid and autonomous CT assessment tools, and thus, we have decided on the creation of a CT assessment tool, which led to an additional research activity.
The study of relevant literature reveals the different teaching approached, which mainly include activities using a computer, especially programming, but also include appoaches of teaching and developing CT without the use of computers (unplugged).
Moreover, the literature review has revealed the lack of autonomous CT assessment tools, and based on this outcome we decided the development and validation of a new CT assessment tool, which is the main research subject of this doctoral dissertation.
Our research is consisted of the following research sections:
- Literature review of the field and publications regarding the theoretical part
- Construction of a pool of original CT assessment tasks
- Pilot research regarding the test and evaluation of the assessment tasks
- Main research for the contruction of the CT assessment tool
- Research for the validation of the new CT assessment tool DACT
The research team
The research activities of DACT are implemented in the context of the doctoral dissertation of Emmanouil Poulakis, a doctoral student of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Thessaly. The tripartite Advisory Committee consists of:
- Panagiotis Politis, Professor of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Thessaly (Supervisor)
- Ilias Karasavvidis, Associate Professor of the Department of Early Childhood Education of the University of Thessaly
- Petros Roussos, Professor of the Department of Psychology of the University of Athens