Applying a hierarchical model of mental growth to educate undergraduate engineering students: Preliminary assessment

Abstract

This presentation illustrates the framework for implementing a hierarchical model of mental growth as the basis for developing critical thinking skills and engineering judgment in engineering undergraduates. We adopt the hypotheses that mental growth constitutes a progression through a hierarchy of cognition, that the critical thinking and judgment required of engineers lies at an upper level in the hierarchy, and that to reach high levels, an individual must master cognitive skills and reorganize knowledge gained at lower levels. These hypotheses provide a roadmap for developing effective teaching and learning strategies to be applied to core engineering courses taught in the sophomore and junior years. It also suggests that the conventional approach of simply applying high-level instruction to educate sophomores and juniors does not necessarily produce seniors who can think critically. Our educational strategy, therefore, is to strengthen low-level cognitive skills in sophomores and juniors that provide a proper foundation on which high-level cognitive skills can be developed. We describe teaching and learning devices that exercise low-level cognitive skills and that support effective development of critical thinking. Assessment instruments that monitor student growth and evaluate the effectiveness of these teaching and learning devices are also described.