@inproceedings{44081de461184aa19e9652e31d53cf25,
title = "Design and first results of a psychometric test for measuring basic programming abilities",
abstract = "We present the design of a test for measuring students' abilities concerning the application of control structures. Validated test instruments are a valuable tool for the evaluation of teaching both in a research setting as well as in a classroom setting. Our test is based on item-response-theory, in particular the Rasch model, and comprises a set of items all following the same format and using a simple, artificial programming language. We field-tested and modified the instrument in four iterations using only small samples and special statistical methods instead of the large samples usually required for IRT models. After the fourth iteration, the test has now reached a usable state. Based on the results, we were able to identify two misconceptions that are occurring very frequently in our test population - students of grade 7 to 10 in secondary schools.",
keywords = "Algorithmic control structures, Assessment, Computer science education, Computing concepts, Latent-trait, Novice programmer, Program flow, Psychometric test",
author = "Andreas M{\"u}hling and Alexander Ruf and Peter Hubwieser",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 ACM.; 10th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, WiPSCE 2015 ; Conference date: 09-11-2015 Through 11-11-2015",
year = "2015",
month = nov,
day = "9",
doi = "10.1145/2818314.2818320",
language = "English",
series = "ACM International Conference Proceeding Series",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",
pages = "2--10",
editor = "Judith Gal-Ezer and Sue Sentence and Jan Vahrenhold",
booktitle = "WiPSCE 2015 - Proceedings of the 10th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education",
}