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Critical and Design Thinking across the Civil Engineering Curriculum
Published in Hudson Jackson, Kassim Tarhini, Compendium of Civil Engineering Education Strategies, 2022
Hudson Jackson, Kassim Tarhini
Generally, engineering undergraduate programs are required to meet accreditation criteria that ensure students develop an appropriate level of critical- and design-thinking skills. In the United States, these skills are encompassed within accreditation criteria such as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Student Outcomes. As such, design and critical thinking in engineering education tend to mostly occur in a focused context directed toward fulfilling one or more ABET Student Outcomes. Critical thinking skills allow individuals to approach specific problems, questions, and issues with clarity, orderliness, diligence, persistence, and precision. Engineering educators have introduced critical thinking and design in the context of problem-solving, ethical decision-making, open-ended design, and assessing the social impacts of technology. Even though engineering educators place emphasis on critical and design thinking, traditional teaching pedagogies do not consistently facilitate it. Lectures, multiple choice, and short answer problems typically used in traditional teaching do not necessarily give students enough opportunities to foster the development of various solutions or reflections. The ability for students to think critically fosters their intellectual development to: appropriately use information and knowledge, recognize and define problems, ask relevant questions, search a variety of sources for relevant information, identify potential solutions, select the best solution, and verify results that meet problem definition and constraints.
Medical Decision Making
Published in Pat Croskerry, Karen S. Cosby, Mark L. Graber, Hardeep Singh, Diagnosis, 2017
One might expect that having completed 20 or more years of formal education, doctors would know how to think, critically appraise evidence, write, reason, and communicate. However, the critical examination of reasoning skills may be neglected in an overburdened curriculum focusing on content over thought process. Those who engage in diagnostic work engender the trust of patients who rely on their reasoning skills and judgment; certainly, patients should expect that their physician be grounded in sound reasoning. Their lives depend on it. Critical thinking is defined as “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, or communication” [52]. How interesting that these skills are similar to the skills required for diagnosis. Further, “critical thinking is that mode of thinking—about any subject, content, or problem—in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking” [53]. The analysis of the diagnostic process deserves examination and requires a critical thinker (see Chapter 8, The Rational Diagnostician). The path to becoming an expert diagnostician requires continual renewal and improvement [54].
Principles of building diagnostics
Published in James Douglas, Bill Ransom, Understanding Building Failures, 2013
The key components of critical thinking are: specific knowledge base, experience, competencies, attitudes and standards. These underpin the following three levels of critical thinking (Potter and Perry 2001):Level 1: Basic – application of principles and adherence to standards of critical thinking;Level 2: Complex – independent and evolving critical thinking; and,Level 3: Commitment – proactive and accountable critical thinking.Given the above it is clear that effective problem solving requires critical thinking and an orderly approach. Novice or inexperienced practitioners do not magically acquire problem-solving skills simply in response to having tutors or experienced practitioners throwing problems at them. They need a methodical approach that develops their critical thinking as well as decision-making skills and the use of heuristics. This edition aims to provide some guidance in this area.
Students’ self-reported learning gains in higher engineering education
Published in European Journal of Engineering Education, 2023
Martina S. J. van Uum, Birgit Pepin
A framework that includes these types of learning is the framework of Vermunt, Ilie, and Vignoles (2018). They studied learning gains in higher education with the aim of developing an instrument to measure these gains. Their framework consists of four components: a cognitive; metacognitive; affective; and socio-communicative component. The cognitive component includes, among others, critical thinking and analytical thinking. Self-regulation and learning to learn are part of the metacognitive component. Examples of the affective component are motivation to learn and attitudes towards own discipline and towards learning. And the socio-communicative component includes, for example, belonging to social learning networks and communication skills. In addition to the four components, the authors distinguished between three dimensions: (1) view of knowledge and learning (e.g. view of intelligence), (2) the research dimension (e.g. attitude to sharing ideas), and (3) the moral dimension (e.g. moral reasoning). The framework of Vermunt, Ilie, and Vignoles (2018) clarifies learning gains in higher education in general, but lacks a focus on higher engineering education.
Examination of students’ acceptance and usage of simulation software technology in an advanced-level merchandising class
Published in International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, 2018
Critical thinking skills are regarded as one of the most important intellectual skills and learning outcomes for college students at many universities (Liu, Frankel, & Roohr, 2014). Many employers consider critical thinking a very important skill for today’s workforce (Liu et al., 2014). Critical thinking skills have been defined in different ways, and its assessment has been developed differently, depending on definition (Markle, Brenneman, Jackson, Burrus, & Robbins, 2013). Numerous assessments have been developed to measure critical thinking skills: the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) (Facione, 1990), California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) (Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo, 1992), Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) (Watson, 1980), Cornell Critical Thinking Test (CCTT) (Ennis, Millman, & Tomko, 1985), and the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (HCTA) (Halpern, 2010).
Development of critical thinking in mathematics classes via authentic learning: an action research
Published in International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2022
Sevda Dolapcioglu, Ahmet Doğanay
Improving critical thinking in mathematics education is a general objective of all countries (Aizikovitsh & Amit, 2010; NCTM, 2000). Moreover, several researchers contend that improvement of critical thinking skills directly impacts mathematics achievement (Aizikovitsh & Amit, 2010; Firdaus et al. 2015; Peter, 2012). Critical thinking is a complex way of thinking that includes understanding, reasoning, analyzing, problem solving, reaching the right solution, proving, and reflecting on others’ solutions (Beyer, 1991; Marcut, 2005; Paul, 1995). The focus of this study was on the skills of understanding, comparing solutions, reaching the right solution, proving, suggesting new solutions, and reflecting.