Advancing Computing Education: Assessing CC2020 Dispositions

This Innovative Practice Full Paper addresses the assessment of dispositions which, along with knowledge and skills, form the three legs of competency needed to perform a task in context, as described in recent computing curricular reports, particularly ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020). Here, dispositions in CC2020 express the behavioral characteristics of competence, such as being adaptable, collaborative, or inventive. Instructors have assessed knowledge from the start of computing programs and have paid increased attention to assessing skills in recent decades. However, dispositions and their role within competency is relatively new, with little guidance available for assessing dispositions. Lately, computing instructors have begun to understand the importance of evaluating dispositions during the performance of tasks in the real world or in the context of the industry-based global Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). Hence, this paper develops a criterion-based approach for use by educators in assessing competence based on a reflective portfolio of "real-world" achievements. Building on concepts developed by the UK Institute of Coding and other recent reports, this work demonstrates how this assessment approach relates to industry-based competency frameworks such as SFIA and the European e-Competence Framework (eCF). The paper also explores using the criterion-based approach in a classroom environment to help students focus on particular dispositions. Its main contribution is to advance the competency focus in academic computing programs and future computing curricula.