Cognitive assessment of students' problem solving and program development skills

A cognitive assessment method for measuring students' problem solving and program development abilities, their skills, knowledge, perception, attitudes and motivation toward problem solving and programming is presented. This method takes into consideration the thinking skills required by students learning how to program, as well as specific knowledge related to program development. The goal is to teach students the skills necessary for formulating the problem; planning and designing the solution; implementing and testing the solution; and monitoring and evaluating the solution's progress. This paper discusses this alternative assessment method and the instruments created to evaluate students' work in an introductory course on problem solving and programming.