Significance of Critical and Creative thinking in Mechanical Engineering
Critical thinking is an active process during which information is not just received but processed, analyzed, and evaluated. No matter what profession one chooses, this is a valuable thinking skill. For mechanical engineers it is a notable skill as most of their profession is contingent on clear, concise, and rational decision making.
The importance of critical thinking has led mechanical engineering colleges to focus on its development. This is done by encouraging questioning and class discussions. Because of this students begin discovering discrepancies between theory and practice when they do occur, which promotes learning. Owing to the considerable practical work in the coursework students perform several laboratory exercises. A number of problems are encountered during these, and students are either hesitant to ask for help to avoid revealing their incompetence or constantly ask for help without any involvement of their own. In both cases, learning suffers because they are not applying their own skills of problem-solving and treating a problem as a failure, rather than a lesson. Here, applying the approach of critical thinking results in a dramatic change of perception for the better (while encountering problems) and increases enthusiasm students show towards the subject.
Some additional advantages of critical thinking are:
Reduces time taken in converting data to quality information. This is helpful for decision making as only material that directly impacts decision making needs to be reviewed rather than sifting through the entire data.
Provides the opportunity to highlight ideas, assumptions, and biases. Every decision will have these and a critical thinking process ensures the accountability of them all. This makes it easier to track exactly what led to the success or failure of a particular action.
Introduces a professional format for presenting ideas, courses of action, and recommendations. Done well, critical thinking naturally evolves through these steps and makes it simple to display to your stakeholders. It also lends credibility to your rationale as it is rooted in a structured process.
Many engineering institutes are focusing on developing critical thinking, and have made it an integral part of their curriculum. Avantika University is a mechanical engineering college in India that truly understands the value of this skill and has a dedicated four credit course on creative and critical thinking skills. In this course students are encouraged to identify ways of improvements in assignments and projects when they encounter problems, moving beyond giving up or complaining. Clubbing creative thinking with critical thinking allows students to explore new possibilities and seek unusual solutions to engineering challenges, making engineers from Avantika University outmatch their peers.