Digital Competence and Computational Thinking of Student Teachers Digital competence is one of the most demanded skills, and includes, among other aspects, the use of technological, informational, multimedia or communication skills and knowledge. In recent years, different institutions have included computational thinking among the different areas that make up this digital competence. However, there are few publications that deepen the relationship between computational thinking and digital competence. The present study analyzes the level of digital competence and computational thinking of 248 Spanish university students, exploring the relationships between both abilities and the existing differences. According to the results, the majority of the students perceive themselves with a medium to a high level of digital competence, highlighting the multimedia and communicative dimensions, as opposed to the more technological aspects. On the other hand, there is a correlation between computational thinking and digital competence, especially with the communicative and technological areas. Likewise, the results indicate that women obtain lower results in their computational thinking and are perceived to be digitally less competent than men, especially in regard to the technological dimension. These results provide relevant information in terms of research and open the door to the development of training actions in student teachers to overcome the stillexisting gender gaps.

Assessing computational thinking: A systematic review of empirical studies Abstract   With the increasing attention to Computational Thinking (CT) in education, there has been a concomitant rise of needs and interest in investigating how to assess CT skills. This study systematically reviewed how CT has been assessed in the literature. We reviewed 96 journal articles to analyze specific CT assessments from four perspectives: educational context, assessment construct, assessment type, and reliability and validity evidence. Our review results indicate that (a) more CT assessments are needed for high school, college students, and teacher professional development programs, (b) most CT assessments focus on studentsu0027 programming or computing skills, (c) traditional tests and performance assessments are often used to assess CT skills, and surveys are used to measure studentsxe2x80x99 CT dispositions, and (d) more reliability and validity evidence needs to be collected and reported in future studies. This review identifies current research gaps and future directions to conceptualize and assess CT skills, and the findings are expected to be beneficial for researchers, curriculum designers, and instructors.