Theoretical Evaluation of a Computation Thinking Instrument for Primary School Graduates

Computational Thinking (CT) is a prominent concept that is part of several computing curricula. However, there is a lack of valid and reliable assessment instruments aimed at assessing the acquisition of Concepts, Practices, and Perspectives of CT. This work aims to develop an assessment instrument for the acquisition of CT to the target audience of primary school graduates, and to carry out its theoretical evaluation using semantic analysis and content analysis. The proposed assessment considers the dimensions of Concepts, Practices and Perspectives of CT. Based on a previously designed operational definition of CT validated by an expert panel, we developed a test bank of questions with 117 items in total, of which 63 items were from the Concepts dimension, 45 items were from the Practices dimension and nine scenarios were from the Perspectives dimension. The items' theoretical analysis was performed in sequence. The semantic analysis sought to verify the items' intelligibility. Content analysis sought to verify whether the developed items refer to the latent trait that was intended to be measured. After the theoretical evaluation, the final instrument has 55 items, being 35 from Concepts, 13 from Practices and seven scenarios from Perspectives. The items that make up the instrument are intelligible to the target audience. Furthermore, according to the expert panel, each item refers to only one of the latent traits among the categories of Concepts, Practices and Perspectives.