Situation Critical: Critical Theory and Critical Thinking in Engineering Education [Career Advisor]

In the last decade there has been an increased emphasis in engineering education on the development of critical thinking skills, owing in part to the introduction of the ABET 2000 criteria. Critical thinking in engineering education occurs mostly in a focused context, directed toward fulfilling one of several ABET learning outcomes. Reviewing the literature, one finds discussions of critical thinking in the contexts of problem solving [1]?[3], conducting experiments [4], [5], ethical decision-making [6], [7], open-ended design [8], [9], and assessing the social impacts of technology [10]. In this work, critical thinking is applied within these focused elements of engineering but not about engineering itself.