An Instrument to Characterize the Cognitive Process Associated with Computational Thinking Skills for Engineering Students

Computational thinking has been around for more than two decades, and some governments are making it an official part of the curriculum. On the other hand, teachers are currently faced with the need to introduce this concept and face challenges in meeting this requirement. This paper describes the use of an instrument to characterize the cognitive process associated with computational thinking skills, a teaching and assessment tool we developed to help teachers promote and assess CT skills. After using the instrument with elementary school students, we wanted to test its usefulness for university students and teachers (mechanical engineering). We adopted a problem-solving approach to solving mechanical engineering problems proposed in the two courses using the instrument. We relied on survey as a research strategy. We used questionnaires (Pre- and Post-experiment), an observation protocol and interviews as data collection methods to collect comments and feedback of students and teachers on the level of satisfaction with the pedagogical tools used. Findings show that in both courses, the level of perceived difficulty decreased and that students enjoyed the experience and felt that their awareness of their learning and study strategies increased.