What is Powerful Ideas

This chapter describes the development and validation of TechCheck, a novel instrument for rapidly assessing computational thinking (CT) skills in 5-9 years old children. TechCheck assessments can be administered in classroom or online settings regardless of whether students have prior knowledge of coding. This assessment probes six domains of CT described by Bers (2018) as developmentally appropriate for young children including algorithms, modularity, control structures, representation, hardware/software, and debugging. TechCheck demonstrates good psychometric properties and can readily distinguish among young children with different CT abilities.