Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Computer Science Concept Inventories: Past And Future, Cynthia Taylor, Daniel Zingaro, Leo Porter, Kevin C. Webb, C. B. Lee, Michael Clancy

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

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 …