Computer science concept inventories: past and future

Abstract

Concept Inventories (CIs) are assessments designed to measure student learning of core concepts. CIs have become well known for their major impact on pedagogical techniques in other sciences, especially physics. Presently, there are no widely used, validated CIs for computer science. However, considerable groundwork has been performed in the form of identifying core concepts, analyzing student misconceptions, and developing CI assessment questions. Although much of the work has been focused on CS1 and a CI has been developed for digital logic, some preliminary work on CIs is underway for other courses. This literature review examines CI work in other STEM disciplines, discusses the preliminary development of CIs in computer science, and outlines related research in computer science education that contributes to CI development.

Keywords:

• concept inventory
• assessment
• misconceptions

Acknowledgements

We thank Steve Wolfman and the anonymous reviewers for their thorough reviews and helpful comments on our work.

Notes

1 Other standardized tests such as the CS International Baccalaureate and the CS Major Field Examination share many features of the AP CS exam and are not treated separately here.

2 Case studies will no longer be a part of the AP CS A exam starting in 2014, partly because the elimination of the AP CS AB exam in 2009 decreased the emphasis on working with relatively large programs.

This work was supported in part by NSF [grant number 1140731].