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This study aimed to develop the Computational Thinking Test for Elementary School Students (CTT-ES) to assess young children's CT competencies in non-programming contexts and also examine the relationship between CT competencies and CT dispositions. A survey including a pool of CTT-ES candidate items and the Computational Thinking Scale (CTS) was administered to 631 elementary school students. Rasch model of the Item Response Theory and the discrimination analysis of the Classical Testing Theory were conducted for item analyses. Pearson's correlation analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between CTT-ES and CTS scores. The results showed that the final CTT-ES including 16 items had a good fitness, discrimination, and reliability to evaluate elementary students' domain-general CT competencies. The convergent validity of CTT-ES was confirmed by its significant correlations with the CTS scores. The significant regression model not only showed students' CT competencies can be predicted by their CT dispositions but also supported The Developmental Model of CT. This study provided a valid and reliable tool for assessing young children's CT abilities. It also furthered our understanding about the developmental orders of CT abilities and contributed to the theoretical construction of CT.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies that incorporate technologies into school science laboratories have proliferated in the recent two decades. A total of 42 studies published from 1990 to 2011 that incorporated technologies to support school science laboratories are reviewed here. Simulations, microcomputer-based laboratories (MBLs), and virtual laboratories are commonly used to assist students in engaging in laboratory activities, followed by remote laboratories, databases, and other miscellaneous technologies. We report the demographics and characteristics of these technology-assisted laboratory studies and provide examples to illustrate how technologies have facilitated science learning in laboratories for different subjects and science domains, with various levels of student involvement and components of investigations. Major findings of the reviewed articles are summarized to understand the effects of applying technologies in school laboratories. Incorporation of technologies in school science laboratories has changed students' learning experiences in terms of the phenomena to be explored, their interactions with the natural phenomena or materials, and approaches to handling and making sense of data. Based on our findings, possible directions for future research and emerging instructional issues regarding technology-assisted laboratories are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By reviewing papers published in five important SSCI journals from 2005 to 2010, this study aimed to provide insights into intervention studies on technology-assisted instruction. It was found that still relatively little research on educational technology which addresses the effects of specific instructional interventions on student learning was conducted during this period. Moreover, most reviewed studies were conducted in higher education, rather than in high school, elementary school, or adult education contexts. The two subject domains, science and engineering (including computer studies), were most frequently involved in these studies, the majority of which addressed achievement as research (learning outcome) foci, while relatively fewer studies investigated students' learning process or affective outcomes. Regarding technology adoption, this study revealed that, in both the 2005-2007 and 2008-2010 periods, technologies for specific instructional purposes(e.g., a specially designed system for online collaborative writing) were more frequently adopted than those for general purposes (such as PowerPoint). This study also reveals that technology-mediated interpersonal interactions are commonly utilized in these intervention studies, with the focus mainly on student-student interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]