Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Critical Thinking for Engineers
As an engineer you mostly engage in learning how to manipulate variables and functions for math and physics. However, there is a fair bit of critical thinking involved because even once you understand that way to solve certain formulas, it still takes some intuitive thought to put them into a form that correctly solves problems. This is more true when it comes to projects as opposed to tests because you aren't given a homework problem, just the an assignment that can be completed in your own creative way. In this way engineering does require a lot of critical thought, but it's typically when actually doing hands on work. USC could improve it's program by incorporating more projects into the curriculum so that we gain more practical knowledge and a chance to think more critically.
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You say that even though much of the learning involved in the sciences is informational in nature, there is an extra step required to solve actual problems, by figuring out which formulas to use in what situations. I feel that as we learn all of the basic theories and formulas that we need, the hands on learning will soon follow, but until then, I feel that it is still necessary to take some time to learn all of the information first.
ReplyDeleteI like this approach to some degree. Perhaps it would be better to just make one class teach with this method. That way students would still learn how to approach problems more efficiently than they may have thought.
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