Game-Based Assessment for Computational Thinking: A Systematic Review

Computational thinking (CT) has become an indispensable skill in the 21st century and has permeated into K-12 education at all levels. The evaluation of CT has become a crucial concern for educators and researchers. Currently., while extensive research has investigated the assessment of students' CT conceptual understanding., the measurement of their thinking processes is less involved. The game-based assessment appears to address this issue by analyzing students' behaviors and reactions during the gameplay process., which has become an emerging assessment tool in CT education. This drives the need for a comprehensive overview of this field. To fill this gap., this study aims to conduct a systematic literature review on the assessment of CT through games. It explores CT skills assessed through games., focusing on target groups, game forms., and benefits. A total of fifteen studies were examined. Findings indicate that algorithmic thinking, problem decomposition, pattern recognition., and abstraction were commonly assessed in games. Different ways for assessing CT skills in games were identified, involving progression level, log data, and manual coding. The benefits of CT game-based assessments were broadly reported, such as enjoyable experiences for students, instant feedback, easy administration for teachers and researchers, and richer information on students' cognitive processes. However, limited has been done in exploring the use of digital games for younger age groups, and the psychometric qualities of the tools were hardly reported in the reviewed studies. The study sheds light on the research and teaching practices in using games and interactive assessment platforms in CT education.