TY - JOUR
T1 - Communicating about computational thinking
T2 - understanding affordances of portfolios for assessing high school students’ computational thinking and participation practices
AU - Fields, Deborah
AU - Lui, Debora
AU - Kafai, Yasmin
AU - Jayathirtha, Gayithri
AU - Walker, Justice
AU - Shaw, Mia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Background and Context: While assessment of computational thinking concepts, practices, and perspectives is at the forefront of K-12 CS education, supporting student communication about computation has received relatively little attention. Objective: To examine the usability of process-based portfolios for capturing students’ communication about their computational practices regarding the process of making electronic textile projects. Method: We examined the portfolios of 248 high school students in 15 introductory CS classrooms from largely underserved communities, using a formal rubric (top-down) to code computational communication and an open-coding scheme (bottom-up) to identify computational practices described. Findings: Students demonstrated stronger abilities to communicate about computation using text than visuals. They also reported under-assessed CT practices like debugging, iterating, and collaborating. Students of experienced e-textile teachers performed substantially better than those with novice e-textile teachers. Implications: Portfolios provide a viable addition to traditional performance or survey assessments and meet a need to promote communication skills.
AB - Background and Context: While assessment of computational thinking concepts, practices, and perspectives is at the forefront of K-12 CS education, supporting student communication about computation has received relatively little attention. Objective: To examine the usability of process-based portfolios for capturing students’ communication about their computational practices regarding the process of making electronic textile projects. Method: We examined the portfolios of 248 high school students in 15 introductory CS classrooms from largely underserved communities, using a formal rubric (top-down) to code computational communication and an open-coding scheme (bottom-up) to identify computational practices described. Findings: Students demonstrated stronger abilities to communicate about computation using text than visuals. They also reported under-assessed CT practices like debugging, iterating, and collaborating. Students of experienced e-textile teachers performed substantially better than those with novice e-textile teachers. Implications: Portfolios provide a viable addition to traditional performance or survey assessments and meet a need to promote communication skills.
KW - assessment
KW - communication
KW - Computer science education
KW - e-textiles
KW - maker education
KW - portfolios
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099475018&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85099475018&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08993408.2020.1866933
DO - 10.1080/08993408.2020.1866933
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099475018
SN - 0899-3408
VL - 31
SP - 224
EP - 258
JO - Computer Science Education
JF - Computer Science Education
IS - 2
ER -