Resumen de Developing a methodology for teaching and evaluating critical thinking skills in first-year engineering students
Lynnette M. Michaluk, Jon Martens, Rebecca L. Damron, K. A. High
Many program outcomes required by ABET 2000 criteria require that students learn critical thinking and communicationskills as part of the engineering curriculum. In this study, we attempted to improve forty-nine first year undergraduateengineering students’ critical thinking skills through two assignments based on the Paul-Elder model of critical thinking,which incorporates characteristics of eight elements of thought of critical thinking and has been contextualized specificallyfor use in engineering. Two methods were employed: problem-based learning and writing for reflectivity. Students firstworked in teams to solve two engineering problems, and then each individual student wrote first and final report drafts foreach of the problem solving tasks. Writing fellows provided structured feedback to students on each of their first draftreports based on one of two grading rubrics used to assess reports. Over the course of the semester, students showedimprovement in overall critical thinking skills and in some, but not all, of the eight elements of critical thinking according toboth grading rubrics. Based on these results, we offer suggestions for the teaching of critical thinking skills toundergraduates in engineering and a call for future empirical research.
