An assessment and evaluation of computer science education

Abstract

This research shows an audience of fellow computer science teachers that there is benefit in testing college student's scientific reasoning skills and that the students increase their logical thinking skills in computer science classes when they are presented with real world problems, engaged in group activities, and given hands-on experiments.Students' scientific reasoning skills from several different computer science courses are analyzed and tested before and after taking the computer science course to measure their improvement in logical thinking. The higher order thinking skills test results are compared, and the overall class and individual student improvement between the classes that use different teaching strategies are analyzed. Also, the test results are compared with students' ability to perform adequately in a computer science course. This information is valuable to advisors when placing students in computer science courses.In the assessments of students' entering knowledge and evaluations of students' thinking improvement, the students' individual higher order thinking skills as well as their overall level of cognitive development are analyzed. Through the analysis of their individual skills and level of thinking, one can expand conclusions about the students' and teacher's performance over time.