Imagery for Critical Thinking: A Pedagogical Approach for Engineering and Science Students

Most science and engineering courses are founded on abstract mathematical and/or analytical theories/concepts. Though the abstract concepts are essential to describe underlying scientific and engineering principles, the teaching pedagogy largely misses out on the utilization of imagery. We expect our students to master the subject we teach, but rarely do we provide them with the necessary tools to synthesize their acquired knowledge. Innovation gets stifled in the maze of abstract theories. This project aims to give image-centered learning a structure, with a robust formative evaluation plan, and a promise of transferability across the colleges of sciences and engineering. The framework aims to crack the elusive challenge of critical thinking in scientific and engineering education. I will pool the concepts in a course, group them into themes, and generate
image-based decision worksheets with the grouped concepts and their inherent synergy.