Explicit Teaching Of Critical Thinking In “Introduction To Engineering”

In evaluating how the School of Engineering will meet the requirements of a recently launched, University wide, quality enhancement program (QEP), engineering faculty were questioned about the role of critical thinking in their teaching and in the profession of engineering. There was unanimous agreement that critical thinking is an important requirement to be successful in most engineering courses. However, there was general agreement that critical thinking was not an explicit component in course lectures, syllabi, or objectives. The assumption was that students understood critical thinking and its role in the practice of engineering. Subsequent interviews with incoming engineering students found a limited understanding of critical thinking. In an effort to help students become better critical thinkers and appreciate the importance of its practice throughout their education and careers, critical thinking and engineering reasoning are now explicit parts of the engineering school’s recently introduced, ―Introduction to Engineering‖ (ENGR 100) course. To maintain consistency with the University’s overall QEP, the Paul -Elder model of critical thinking is used to define and operationalize critical thinking. Critical thinking is now both an explicit and implicit component of the ―Introduction to Engineering‖ course. One class meeting is dedicated entirely to the topic of critical thinking, and is organized around the Paul-Elder model. Following this presentation, students are given some critical thinking exercises. The course also includes a number of case studies where students explore engineering as an activity in greater detail. Using the language of the Paul-Elder model, the critical thinking or engineering reasoning in these case studies is made explicit to students during case study discussions. Students also participate in the analysis of the case studies, through team based exercises and assignments. These assignments include implicit critical thinking components. The critical thinking portion of the assignment helps reinforce the importance of engineering reasoning to the students. By making critical thinking an explicit outcome of the course, students will be better prepared to strengthen and enrich their critical thinking skills in future (upper level) courses. To measure the outcome of the explicit critical thinking instruction in the course, students are given a pre-assessment and a post-assessment of their understanding of critical thinking and their ability to think critically. The pre-assessment occurs before any class meetings that are dedicated to the Paul-Elder Model and critical thinking. The post-assessment follows a critical thinking homework assignment and