Development of the Critical Reflection and Agency in Computing Index

TL;DR

This paper presents a new, validated index to measure undergraduate computing students' attitudes towards ethical reflection and agency, aiding the assessment of ethics education effectiveness.

Contribution

It introduces the Critically Conscious Computing framework and develops a novel, validated instrument for assessing students' ethical reflection and agency in computing.

Findings

The index is theoretically grounded and expert-reviewed.

It provides a reliable tool for measuring students' attitudes.

Supports research and practice in computing ethics education.

Abstract

As computing's societal impact grows, so does the need for computing students to recognize and address the ethical and sociotechnical implications of their work. While there are efforts to integrate ethics into computing curricula, we lack a standardized tool to measure those efforts, specifically, students' attitudes towards ethical reflection and their ability to effect change. This paper introduces the novel framework of Critically Conscious Computing and reports on the development and content validation of the Critical Reflection and Agency in Computing Index, a novel instrument designed to assess undergraduate computing students' attitudes towards practicing critically conscious computing. The resulting index is a theoretically grounded, expert-reviewed tool to support research and practice in computing ethics education. This enables researchers and educators to gain insights into students' perspectives, inform the design of targeted ethics interventions, and measure the effectiveness of computing ethics education initiatives.