Assessing understanding of computer concepts with the Neo Piagetian theory, tests and thinking aloud

Teaching programming, problem solving and assembly algorithms represents professionally and educationaly demanding task, as the pupils must be capable of abstract thinking in order to understand the computer concepts. According to Neo Piagetian theory an individual, regardless of age, progresses in four stages of abstract thinking. If a teacher wants to help pupils develop abstract thinking in programming, he or she must define at what stage of thinking is an individual learner. Teacher identifies ability to solve the tasks at different stages through tests. It is not possible to conclude the individual ability of abstract thinking only from the analysis of the test results. From the results can only be concluded the proportion of pupils that are not yet reached a certain level of thinking. The condition for such a conclusion are relevant tasks that are proper and require thinking at the appropriate level. Determining the level of abstract thinking for an individual student is much more reliable with individual conversations with pupils, when they are trying to solve the problem and at the same time think aloud. In this article, we present the procedure for the preparation of test and verification of its relevance. We analyze the results of 638 tests and found out that task adequately find the students who did not solved correctly the tasks on a higher level. The results were verified with the individual interviews with students. The relevant tests in the education help the teacher to adapt the teaching to the students who’s level of abstract thinking is still not developed