Abstract

Learning to think computationally has been identified by some researchers as a desirable skill for twenty-first-century learners (Wing 2006). The challenge for educators is to create learning environments that can foster the development of Computational Thinking (CT) in students. Teacher education programs are uniquely positioned to integrate CT skills into their pedagogical practice. Grover and Pea (2013) identified the following essential dimensions when considering CT: a) what can we expect students to know once they have participated in a curriculum designed to foster CT skills? and b) how might CT skills be evaluated? Building from the earlier research of Brennan and Resnick (2012), we selected digital game construction, using a graphical, block-based, programming environment, Scratch, to operationalize our CT context. A literature review forms the foundation for the design and creation of our assessment instrument used to measure a set of CT skills. We applied the results from this assessment instrument to the forty student-constructed games of various genres indicate that students successfully demonstrated different dimensions of CT. The paper concludes with a discussion on the teaching and assessment of CT components.