Development and Validation Study of Computational Thinking Test for Elementary and Middle School Students in Artificial Intelligence Contexts

Computational thinking has been globally recognized as a necessary skill in the "Artificial Intelligence Era". With the popularization of programming and computational thinking education, how to effectively assess students' computational thinking skills in the context of AI has attracted the attention of researchers. Therefore, this study used a collaborative approach between teachers and AIGC to develop test questions to assess Chinese elementary and middle school students' computational thinking by combining artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms, and computational thinking skills. The analysis of 125 students in China showed that the computational thinking test developed in this study has good validity and reliability. It was also found that the higher the student's grade level, the higher their computational thinking skills. The study's findings can provide practical references for frontline primary and secondary school IT teachers to conduct computational thinking education.