feature article

James Hemming from

Stemmers Run Middle
School in Baltimore asks
critical thinking questions
during the Boat Challenge.

instilling
critical thinking
in technology and engineering education students
In technology and engineering education, critical thinking
may be synonymous with technological literacy.
Introduction What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is a skill most teachers want their students Definitions of critical thinking depend on the perspective of
to develop and exhibit to help prepare them for their 21st the domain, whether business, secondary education, higher
Century futures, whether for college or career choices. education, or psychology. While there are similar ideas in
Unfortunately, many teachers have a lack of understand- all, the variety of definitions adds to the confusion faced by
ing of what critical thinking is and what strategies are best educators directed to increase criti-
utilized to teach and assess it. Technology and engineering cal thinking in their students. The by
(T & E) education offers appropriate settings for the types of Critical Thinking Community (n.d.)
instructional strategies that appear to be the most effective website defines it as: “(1) Disci-
Thomas
in teaching critical thinking. plined, self-directed thinking, which Loveland, DTE
30 technology and engineering teacher May/June 2019
 instilling critical thinking skills in technology and engineering education students

exemplifies the perfections of thinking appropriate to a particular

mode or domain of thinking; (2) Thinking that displays mastery of
intellectual skills and abilities; and (3) The art of thinking about
your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your think-
ing better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible.”
Pardamean (2012) defines critical thinking as “the process of
determining the authenticity, accuracy, and worth of informa-
tion or knowledge claims…critical thinking is demonstrated by
the individual ability to judge the soundness of information,
assess conclusions, and make good inferences. Critical thinking
improves students’ ability to make decisions or draw conclusions
about problems that may not always have a correct solution” (p.
443-444).
According to Ellerton (2014), the four attributes of critical thinking
are argumentation, logic, psychology, and science. Argumenta-
tion is intellectual engagement with an issue through rational
analysis and inference. Logic is reasoned deduction or induction
that follows a true thinking path to making informed decisions.
Through psychology, people use metacognition to reduce or
block the effects of their cognitive biases. Understanding the
nature of science, scientific method, and statistics assists people
to use the critical thinking process effectively.
Moore (2013) translates critical thinking into themes based on
a study of university programs. The first theme is critical think-
ing as judgment of the validity or truthfulness of a criterion.
The second is that critical thinking is related closely to healthy
skepticism about what is presented to oneself. The third is that
critical thinking could be a careful, sensitive, and contextual
reading of text. The fourth theme is one of adopting ethical and
activist stances through critical action. The final theme is that
critical thinking can be self-reflexive, meaning that one should be
considering their own assumptions and subjectivity.
Mulnix (2012) points out that critical thinking is less domain-
specific in terms of its effectiveness. Students who excel at
demonstrating critical thinking in one content area are able to
transfer those skills in other domains. This skill is associated with
students who can understand the deep structure of a problem
and have domain knowledge to work on solutions. Critical think-
ing is the ability to recognize inferential connections between
differing points of view or evidence. According to Mulnix (2012),
it “protects us from sloppy and conformist thinking and insulates
us against empty dogmatism and rhetoric” (p. 473).
Critical Thinking in the Workplace is hinted at in all disciplines but appears fully formed in none. As
Employers need workers with transferable employability skills
who can think about important questions and issues, gather and
analyze relevant data and information to standards and appropri-
ate criteria, be adaptable in assessing assumptions and implica-
James Hemming from Stemmers Run Middle
School in Baltimore challenges a student to
think critically during the Boat Challenge.
tions of decision-making, and effectively communicate solutions
to complex problems (Castellano, Lightle & Baker, 2017). This is
considered a skill set for 21st century workplaces. The U.S. De-
partment of Labor (2018) states that “problem solving and critical
thinking refers to the ability to use knowledge, facts, and data to
effectively solve problems. This doesn’t mean you need to have
an immediate answer; it means you have to be able to think on
your feet, assess problems, and find solutions. The ability to de-
velop a well-thought-out solution within a reasonable time frame,
however, is a skill that employers value greatly”.
Hyslop-Margison and Armstrong (2004) caution against a purely
business-needs focus on critical thinking. That approach consid-
ers critical thinking as a means to meet business objectives and
increase human capital in order to build business effectiveness
and profitability. The authors propose a refined definition of
teaching critical thinking based on foundational rationality. This
approach requires students to develop deep content knowledge,
have the disposition of open-mindedness, explore the historical
context of career and technical education content, and respect
the moral imperatives of our democracy, including social justice.
Critical Thinking in Education
The varying ideas of what critical thinking is make it difficult for
educators to plan instruction to teach and assess critical think-
ing in their students. Ellerton (2014) states the ”problem is that
critical thinking is the Cheshire Cat of educational curricula—it
soon as you push to see it in focus, it slips away” (p. 1). Critical
thinking has not been emphasized in education due to a three-
decade focus on accountability measures and standardized
testing.
May/June 2019 technology and engineering teacher 31
instilling critical thinking skills in technology and engineering education students
Critical thinking is emphasized by teacher
James Hemming from Stemmers Run
Middle School in Baltimore.
Critical thinking is emphasized by
teacher James Hemming from Stemmers
Run Middle School in Baltimore.
Critical thinking can be taught in secondary classrooms. Du-
ron, Limbach, and Waugh (2006) describe a five-step process
for teaching critical thinking in any discipline. Step one calls on
educators to determine learning objectives linked to the top three New Zealand secondary schools as an interventionist teaching
Bloom's taxonomy levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Step two is to facilitate learning primarily through asking ques-
tions. Teachers should ask thought-provoking questions with
longer discussions in an open learning environment. Allowing
students to answer deeper questions will stimulate their thinking
process and allow them to come up for and against assumptions. stand the complexities in a topic. In a classroom setting, teachers
Step three is practice before assessing through active learning
and time for student reflective dialog about what they are learn-
ing. Step four prompts teachers to review, refine, and improve
their lessons continuously based on feedback from students,
and step five provides feedback to students through engaged
dialogue. The result of these strategies is that students should
be able to define the terms being used, consider the context of
the question being asked, weigh multiple explanations, evaluate
evidence, and make decisions based on probability of success.
The tools learned through critical thinking skills allow students to
build awareness and an understanding of the thought process.
Critical thinking allows students to be able to apply, analyze,
synthetize, and evaluate in their decision-making process.
There are three facets to teaching critical thinking according
to Hooks (2010). Teachers need to create a climate of radical
openness where students deconstruct knowledge to understand
core underlying truths. The critical thinking classroom uses
32 technology and engineering teacher May/June 2019
engaged pedagogy or interactive relationships between teach-
ers and students. The teacher is part of the collaborative learning
community, not the sage on the stage. Finally, teachers should
encourage a conversation-based model of learning with intense
dialog, which leads to heightened awareness and engagement
with content by students.
Mulnix (2012) encourages teachers to include repetitive and var-
ied practice in thinking exercises, teach students the difference
between evidence and the conclusions they support, employ
argument maps in class discussions, and have students peer-
review other papers for fallacies of argument. These strategies
can help students become more autonomous thinkers. Teachers
can regularly question students socratically by probing vari-
ous dimensions of their thinking, including their purpose, their
evidence, reasons, data, their claims, beliefs, interpretations,
deductions, conclusions, the implications and consequences of
their thought, and their response.
Another critical thinking strategy is to require journaling or daily
reflection. Maintaining a journal is an effective means to ex-
plore ideas. Writing encourages students to expand upon their
thoughts and form connections. A journal forces students to slow
down and focus on just one or two ideas at a time, which hectic
Photo credit: Terri Willingham.
schedules don't otherwise allow. Students can use journaling to
record important ideas and develop questions about topics.
Davies and Meissel (2015) reported on the use of quality talk in
strategy to teach students how to use critical reflective-thinking
approaches for text comprehension and writing. Students devel-
op skills in interrogating ideas in search of underlying arguments,
beliefs, and assumptions. Quality talk uses authentic questions,
reasoning words, and fully articulated explanations to under-
take on a facilitator role instead of lecturer to model, prompt, and
challenge students who take on control of the discussion.
Assessment of Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is not generally emphasized in education tests
and therefore is not often assessed in education. Standardized
tests in multiple-choice format offer one correct response for
students to choose. Where critical thinking could be assessed
is through the use of scenario questions written at higher levels
of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Watanabe-Crockett (2015) reports that
increased focus on critical thinking can raise standardized test
scores because students develop a deeper understanding of the
content being assessed. The skills of appropriately gathering
and analyzing information through reading comprehension and
problem solving play a strong role in success on standardized
assessments.
 instilling critical thinking skills in technology and engineering education students
In a study on assessing critical thinking in postsecondary
psychology courses, Bensley, Crow, Bernhardt, Buckner, and
Allman (2010) reported that explicit teaching of critical thinking
skills in course instruction is necessary to initiate student gains
in argument analysis abilities. Argument analysis is a process of
reflecting on evidence to support sound conclusions, using rules
and criteria to make judgments based on reason, and having the
personal dispositions to use those rules.
The International Technology Education Association/Interna-
tional Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEA/
ITEEA, 2003) has an assessment benchmark specific to criti-
cal thinking in Advancing Excellence in Technological Literacy.
Standard A-4, Benchmark C states that “teachers consistently
facilitate critical thinking and decision making” (ITEA/ITEEA,
2003, p. 31). The text that accompanies this benchmark points
out that teachers can assess critical thinking through pre- and
post-test approaches, reflective writing by technology students,
or by evaluating student response to problem situations in order
to demonstrate critical thinking and decision making.
Critical Thinking in Technology and
Engineering
Standards for Technological Literacy (ITEA/ITEEA, 2000/2002/
2007) includes many standards and benchmarks that are pre-
disposed towards open-ended discussion and multiple solu-
tions that can be defended by deep understanding and vigorous
argumentation. For example, Standard 4 The Cultural, Social,
Economic, and Political Effects of Technology, includes a prompt
that “students should explore these emerging technologies and
develop the skills to evaluate their impact. They should learn
to reason and make decisions based on asking critical thinking
questions, not on the basis of fear or misunderstandings” (p.
61). A topic on new medical devices can lead to many questions
about technological solutions with unintended consequences,
costs, the FDA approval process, politics, and other consider-
ations. In technology and engineering education, critical thinking
may be synonymous with technological literacy. A sample lesson
plan on the effects of technology is referenced at the end of this
article.
Yu, Lin, & Fan (2015) studied high school communication tech-
nology students' abilities to apply conceptual knowledge to think
critically about technological issues. Conceptual knowledge is
both system knowledge and theoretical knowledge. An example
from communication technology would be the system knowledge
of source, encoder, transmitter, receiver, decoder, storage, re-
trieval and destination, and theoretical knowledge of radio wave
forms to explain how mobile phones work. The results of their
study indicated that without concrete examples and teacher-di-
rected assistance in student understanding of related theoretical
concepts, students generally had a difficult time learning to think
critically. Good critical thinking is exemplified by reflection on
the effects of technological development, an ability to objectively
consider diverse values and to select appropriate solutions to
problems. Critical thinking can be enhanced when technology
teachers implement more hands-on interactive instructional
strategies via computer animation and direct instruction to em-
phasize system and theoretical knowledge. Classroom debates
on technological issues may be used to develop these skills in
technology students.
Darby and Rashid (2017) discussed the teaching of higher-order
thinking skills (HOTS) in engineering drawing classes. When
these classes were taught through rote memorization and pro-
cedures with a focus on national exam achievement, the devel-
opment of critical thinking skills was hindered. Critical thinking
was enhanced when open-ended problems based on real-world
applications were used as teaching strategies. Higher-order
thinking problems require students to “find alternative solutions
systematically, analyze the problems and their solutions critically,
become confident while reasoning, remain open-minded when
being criticized by others, and make mature judgment by taking
into account others’ views as well as their own decisions” (Darby
& Rashid, 2017, p. 309).
Technology and engineering (T & E) teachers have many in-
structional strategies at their disposal to teach critical thinking.
Problem-/project-based learning is a natural strategy through
challenging, open-ended, and engaging problems. Students can
be required to collect and analyze data to make conclusions.
Technology students need deeper understanding of core content
knowledge to contextualize to other settings or problems. This
is very different than memorizing facts. For example, a technol-
ogy and engineering teacher develops a design brief about solar
powered vehicles. For the students, just knowing terminology
won’t help them be successful. They must understand physics,
electrical conversions, friction, power train, weather, and more
to have a deep enough understanding to be successful in this
challenge.
Teachers should design challenges with multiple possible solu-
tions. Use of Wikipedia won’t be of any value to students in these
activities. Competitions increase motivation in students to do
better and to find unique solutions to give them an advantage. If
the technology teacher can add in explicit links to authentic work
situations, that will increase student persistence.
Other technology teaching strategies that can enhance critical
thinking include having students develop Wikis, which is noted
for student collaborative editing of content. Small-group teams
can develop WebQuests for technology content. Case studies
may be developed for small-group teams to solve. The groups
would determine the effectiveness of their decisions based on
criteria and tradeoffs. Class presentation about the decision
May/June 2019 technology and engineering teacher 33
instilling critical thinking skills in technology and engineering education students
Angela Waldrop from
Eastern Tech High
School in Baltimore
assists students in a
critical thinking
challenge.
process is the most effective aspect of this project to develop
critical thinking skills, as the students are forced to articulate
their decision-making process to others.
Conclusion
In order to be prepared for future college or careers, 21st century
students should have critical thinking in their arsenal of soft
skills. Most teachers and schools feel that critical thinking skills
are important to teach, but unfortunately they have a lack of
understanding of what critical thinking is and what strategies are
best utilized to teach and assess it. Technology and engineer-
ing education is a particularly appropriate setting for the types
of instructional strategies that appear to be the most effective
in teaching critical thinking. T & E teachers are used to being
facilitators in their labs and having students work on open-ended
technological problems with rich dialogue and questioning in
all phases of the activities. Key cognitive questions should be
planned out in advance and be matched to the purpose being
taught. With critical thinking ideas infused in course assess-
ments, technology and engineering students have a lead on
developing the critical thinking skills they will need throughout
life to become discerning and autonomous individuals.
References
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NOTE: The Technology and Engineering Lesson Plan – “Effects of
Technology” is available at www.Iteea.org/TETMayJune19Loveland.
aspx.
Thomas R. Loveland, Ph.D., DTE is a profes-
sor and director of the M.Ed. program in Career
and Technology Education at the University of
Maryland Eastern Shore in Baltimore. He can
be reached at tloveland@umes.edu.
This is a refereed article.
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