The Thinker's Guide to Engineering Reasoning

This thinker’s guide contains the essence of engineering reasoning concepts and tools. This thinker’s guide is designed for administrators, faculty, students and engineers. It contains the essence of engineering reasoning concepts and tools. For faculty it provides a shared concept and vocabulary. For students it is a thinking supplement to any textbook for any engineering course. Faculty can use it to design engineering instruction, assignments, and tests. Students can use it to improve their perspective in any domain of their engineering studies.
Generic engineering thinking skills apply to all technological disciplines. For example, engineering thinkers are clear as to the purpose at hand and the question at issue. They question information, conclusions, and points of view. They strive to be accurate, precise, and relevant. They seek to think beneath the surface, to be logical, and objective. They apply these skills to their reading and writing as well as to their speaking and listening. They apply them in professional and personal life.

It is important for the field of engineering to be understood as systems of overlapping and interrelated ideas, rather than isolated and different fields of knowledge. Moreover, it is important to recognize and effectively deal with the multiple environmental, social and ethical aspects that complicate responsible engineering. Accordingly, engineering educators should realize that effective engineering instruction cannot be based in memorization or technical calculation alone. Rather, it is essential that engineering students develop the generalizable critical thinking skills and dispositions necessary for effectively and professionally reasoning through the complex engineering issues and questions they will face as engineers. Hence the need for this thinker’s guide.