Informatics in Education

Computational Thinking (CT) is widely recognised as a transversal competence essential for learning, problem solving, and knowledge transfer across disciplines. However, its effective integration into school education remains strongly dependent on the availability of assessment instruments that are pedagogically meaningful, psychometrically sound, and applicable across diverse educational contexts. This paper presents COMATH, a cross-national assessment instrument designed to evaluate CT in students aged 9–14. The instrument adopts a phase-based development and validation framework that integrates Bebras-inspired tasks, Item Response Theory, factor-analytic methods, learning analytics, and teacher and student feedback. The assessment was iteratively developed and piloted between 2023 and 2025 in six European countries, with data collected from 6,480 students and 155 teachers. The findings demonstrate that a phased assessment approach enables systematic calibration of task difficulty, robust evaluation of item functioning, and meaningful interpretation of student performance across age groups and national contexts. The results further highlight how well-designed CT assessment can support instructional decision-making rather than serve solely as a summative measure. The study argues for conceptualising CT assessment as a dynamic and iterative process that links measurement, psychometric validation, and pedagogical use in school education.

Computer science (CS) students are expected to grasp numerous CS concepts during their CS education. Researchers have previously pointed to some concepts that are challenging for many students to conquer during their education. In this study, we investigate how CS students encounter indirection, scope, references, and parameter transfer during their studies. We focus on the first three study years, as previous studies have indicated that students do not significantly improve their grasp of these concepts during that time. We surveyed the teachers of courses in three CS study programs, exploring teachers’ perspectives on students’ knowledge of the concepts and how explicitly the concepts are taught and graded. Our investigation highlights several ways in which curricula diverge from previous recommendations and how an understanding of these study programs can support learning outcomes.