MEASURING COMPUTER SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE LEVEL OF HUNGARIAN STUDENTS SPECIALIZED IN INFORMATICS WITH ROMANIAN STUDENTS ATTENDING A SCIENCE COURSE OR A MATHEMATICS-INFORMATICS COURSE

ABSTRACT

An analysis of Information Technology knowledge of Hungarian and Romanian students was made with the help of a self developed web based Informatics Test. The goal of this research is an analysis of the Computer Science knowledge level of Hungarian and Romanian students attending a Science course or a Mathematics-Informatics course. Analysed was how effectively can students from different grades answer questions dealing with different subjects. After having evaluated the test results correctness of the original presumption emerged. Significance level was 5% through the analysis. It was found significant divergence in knowledge of Hungarian students and Romanian students attending a science course (Profil Real) and a Mathematics-Informatics course. Romanian students attending a science course and a Mathematics-Informatics course scored higher in programming than their Hungarian counterparts specialized in Informatics in the 11^th grade. After the calculating values of the partial correlation we have got same results by subjects too.

After the evaluation a final conclusion can be made: Romanian students of the Real Profile have the same or more practice in programming than Hungarian students specialized in Informatics, though the latters have the same or higher Computer Science knowledge level. Unfortunately, Hungarian teachers concentrate on word processing and spreadsheet calculation and teach programming just for the students specialized in Informatics, although algorithm thinking would be important for every student before finishing secondary school.