An investigation of the critical thinking ability of engineering students seeking a bachelor of science degree

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the critical thinking ability as defined by the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal between second semester sophomores and second semester seniors in Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electronic Engineering Technology, Computer Engineering Technology and Architectural Technology in the Herff College of Engineering at Memphis State University. Twenty students were randomly selected from each group and a Two-Way Analysis of Variance was conducted at the.05 level.; No significant differences in overall critical thinking ability were found between seniors and sophomores in the different disciplines; however, seniors scored higher than sophomores in deductive reasoning and in inference skills.; No significant differences were found in overall critical thinking ability between any of the disciplines at the senior level. However, Electronic Engineering Technology students scored higher in deduction skills than Civil Engineering students.; The overall critical thinking ability and deduction skills of Electrical Engineering sophomores were found to be significantly higher than those of Architectural Technology sophomores. Further, Electrical Engineering sophomores scored higher in deduction skills than Civil Engineering sophomores.; These findings were consistent with previous studies which indicated that those scoring low initially showed greater gains than those scoring high initially and that the only real increases found in the research were usually associated with courses designed specifically to increase critical thinking skills.