Exploring Potential Factors to Students’ Computational Thinking: Interactions between Gender and ICT-resource Differences in Taiwanese Junior High Schools

Abstract

One of the major purposes of this study is to investigate the potential impact of gender and information and computer technology (ICT) resources on students’ computational thinking (CT) competencies. To this end, the Computational Thinking Test for Junior High Students (CTT-JH) was developed and validated. Research participants included 437 junior high school students in Taiwan. The surveyed schools were categorized into more or fewer ICT resources. Then, discrimination analyses and Rasch modeling for item analyses and two-way ANOVA were conducted. Results showed that the final version of CTT-JH is of good item quality. Students in schools with more ICT resources had higher CT test mean scores regardless of gender. Nevertheless, at schools with limited resources, male students had significantly lower CT test mean scores than female students did. This study provides new insights into how gender and ICT resources can interact with and impact on students’ CT competencies. It also provides a valid and reliable tool for assessing young adolescents’ CT abilities.

Keywords

• computational thinking
• junior high school
• assessment
• non-programming
• domain-general ct