Designing and evaluating a computational thinking and computing attitudes instrument for educational purposes

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT) is a set of thinking processes used by computer scientists to formulate problems and describe solutions. Given that the skills typically associated with CT, such as abstraction and algorithmic thinking, are largely demanded for the 21st century, there have been several claims on the need to introduce CT to the educational community. One crucial aspect in this regard is the perceptions that students hold on the subject as well as on Computing in general. Various studies have been carried out to measure students' attitudes towards Computing. However, assessing the understanding of CT and Computing attitudes in undergraduate education, and particularly in teacher education, has not been fully explored yet. Most current instruments are either not aimed at educators or not designed to cover elements related to both CT and Computing. In this work, our goal was to design and evaluate a survey instrument on perceptions of CT and attitudes towards Computing for undergraduate students. Our work aimed to evaluate whether the instrument has potential to grasp the aspects involved in five different intended constructs: 1) understanding of CT, 2) application of CT in classroom, 3) confidence to learn Computing, 4) interest for Computing and 5) perception of Computing usefulness. After applying the instrument in two different phases, we computed its reliability and used confirmatory factor analysis results to calculate its internal validity. Results showed evidence that the instrument is both reliable and valid. Thus, researchers and educators may reuse our survey instrument to measure students' impressions of CT and Computing attitudes in educational contexts.