Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Publication
    A literature review of critical thinking in engineering education
    Developing optimum solutions to engineering problems typically relies on structured and complex thought processes that require evaluation, interpretation and opinion. Well-developed critical thinking (CT) skills are essential for dealing with the multi-dimensional nature of these problems. CT in an engineering context is well reported in teaching and learning academic literature. However, much of this is framed within theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Practical approaches of how CT skills are best promoted in engineering curricula are less common. A state-of-art review of practical interventions that target the development of CT in engineering students is presented. The review draws on 25 selected peer-reviewed journal articles in established engineering databases and focusses on teaching strategies where their effects in promoting CT skills in students are measured. Considerable variability in the reviewed literature was apparent. CT interventions and strategies are often reported, but metrics of their success in enhancing students’ CT is often limited to qualitative, subjective inferences. To more robustly and holistically ensure that CT is clearly embedded in university curricula, there needs to be well-funded research programmes that allow different methods to be developed and trialled over extended periods in higher education engineering programmes.
    Scopus© Citations 46  336
  • Publication
    A European collection of the Critical Thinking skills and dispositions needed in different professional fields for the 21st century
    Within the scope of the project CRITHINKEDU, this report provides an overall analysis of the understanding of Critical Thinking (CT) by employers and establishes similarities and differences in its expression, need and practical application at the workplace. Adopting a qualitative research methodology, 32 focus groups were conducted enrolling 189 professionals from 9 European countries. The focus groups comprised graduates from 4 different professional fields, namely Biomedical Sciences, STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Social Sciences and the Humanities. Based on the Facione’ theoretical framework (Facione, 1990), key findings are in line with previous studies (Jones, 2009; Jones, 2010; Grace & Orrock, 2015; Sin, Jones & Wang, 2015), suggesting that CT is widely understood and interpreted as a set of interdependent skills and dispositions that are unquestionably needed in recent graduates. This is due to today’s labour market and societal demands, although with slight differences in their practical application that tend to vary across professional fields.
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  • Publication
    A European review on Critical Thinking educational practices in Higher Education Institutions
    Within the scope of CRITHINKEDU project, this report is directed to university teachers, pedagogical support teams and institutional leaders, providing an overall understanding on how European Higher Education Institutions (EHEI) foster Critical Thinking (CT), taking into account both the current educational intervention studies reported in the literature and teachers' educational practices. Adopting a mixed method research design, 46 papers from the literature were reviewed and 53 interviews with university teachers from 9 European countries were carried out. The analysis comprised both studies and teachers' interviews from 4 different professional fields, namely Biomedical Sciences, STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Social Sciences and the Humanities.
      1065
  • Publication
    TRUSS Training in Reducing Uncertainty in Structural Safety: D2.5 Final Report: WP2 - Dissemination and Outreach
    This report describes the outputs of work package WP2 (Dissemination and Outreach) from 1 st January 2015 to 31st December 2018. Dissemination by TRUSS is keenly aware of the importance of not only producing and presenting research outputs for the scientific community and key stakeholders (i.e., via conferences, workshops, publications and reports), but also engaging the general public in line with the Innovation Union objectives. TRUSS mainly deals with the challenges faced at the design, assessment and management stages of large scale structures. Outreach activities, blogs and social media and other communications by TRUSS, bring awareness to the public on the importance of this research on infrastructure to support a community, region or country, and also motivate School and University students to pursue a research career. These activities make citizens aware of: • Infrastructure aging and failing, with funding that has been insufficient to repair and replace it; • The important role of the Marie Skłodowksa-Curie Actions in forming 21st century engineers that will have the skills to face the formidable challenge of modernizing the fundamental infrastructure that support civilization.
      357
  • Publication
    The CRITHINKEDU European Course on critical thinking education for university teachers : from conception to delivery
    Within the scope of the CRITHINKEDU project1, this intellectual output (Output 3) reports the experience of conceiving and delivering a European training course on Critical Thinking (CT) education for university teachers. It draws on the proposal of the “European inventory of critical thinking skills and dispositions for the 21st century” and the “Preliminary guidelines for quality in critical thinking education” - both presented in the two previous intellectual outputs of the project (Dominguez, 2018a, 2018b). This report is targeted to each leading partner institution or to any Higher Education (HE) institution which desire to later replicate this training course at the local level, to faculty staff interested in the implementation of CT teaching practices and learning activities in their classroom. Deployments within the CRITHINKEDU project will be carried-out as part of the fourth and following intellectual output (Output 4).
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