Development and Validation of the Computational Thinking Test for Elementary School Students (CTT-ES): Correlate CT Competency With CT Disposition

Abstract

This study aimed to develop the Computational Thinking Test for Elementary School Students (CTT-ES) to assess young children’s CT competencies in non-programming contexts and also examine the relationship between CT competencies and CT dispositions. A survey including a pool of CTT-ES candidate items and the Computational Thinking Scale (CTS) was administered to 631 elementary school students. Rasch model of the Item Response Theory and the discrimination analysis of the Classical Testing Theory were conducted for item analyses. Pearson’s correlation analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between CTT-ES and CTS scores. The results showed that the final CTT-ES including 16 items had a good fitness, discrimination, and reliability to evaluate elementary students’ domain-general CT competencies. The convergent validity of CTT-ES was confirmed by its significant correlations with the CTS scores. The significant regression model not only showed students’ CT competencies can be predicted by their CT dispositions but also supported The Developmental Model of CT. This study provided a valid and reliable tool for assessing young children’s CT abilities. It also furthered our understanding about the developmental orders of CT abilities and contributed to the theoretical construction of CT.