Developing optimum solutions to engineering problems typically relies on structured and complex thought processes that require evaluation, interpretation and opinion. Well-developed critical thinking (CT) skills are essential for dealing with the multi-dimensional nature of these problems. CT in an engineering context is well reported in teaching and learning academic literature. However, much of this is framed within theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Practical approaches of how CT skills are best promoted in engineering curricula are less common. A state-of-art review of practical interventions that target the development of CT in engineering students is presented. The review draws on 25 selected peer-reviewed journal articles in established engineering databases and focusses on teaching strategies where their effects in promoting CT skills in students are measured. Considerable variability in the reviewed literature was apparent. CT interventions and strategies are often reported, but metrics of their success in enhancing students’ CT is often limited to qualitative, subjective inferences. To more robustly and holistically ensure that CT is clearly embedded in university curricula, there needs to be well-funded research programmes that allow different methods to be developed and trialled over extended periods in higher education engineering programmes.

Critical thinking is a graduate attribute that many courses, including engineering courses, claim to produce in students. As a graduate attribute it is seen by academics as a particularly desirable outcome of student learning and is said by researchers to be a defining characteristic of university education. However, how critical thinking is understood and defined varies quite significantly between disciplines. The paper describes a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with academics involved in teaching and learning in a number of disciplines, including engineering. The objective of these interviews is to look at how different disciplines define critical thinking and how they teach critical thinking in their courses. The paper also describes how an analysis of student work and module descriptors has led to the development of a model of critical thinking that can be used across disciplines.

This paper describes two case studies where problem-based learning (PBL) has been introduced to undergraduate civil engineering students in University College Dublin. PBL has recently been put in place in the penultimate and final year transport engineering classes in the civil engineering degree in University College Dublin. In this case study, the paper describes how PBL was introduced, the impacts of its introduction and the feedback received by students regarding PBL. PBL was introduced in these years to help students to become deep and active learners and to help them in the transition from passive note taker to researcher and lifelong learner.

This paper describes a research study carried out in Ireland looking at transport provision in rural areas in Ireland. The objective of the study was to look at experiences of older people in rural Ireland and to assess how well current levels of transport provision were meeting their transport needs. A series of focus groups with older people living in rural areas was conducted in different parts of rural Ireland, both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. A number of interesting findings were revealed. This paper focuses on the findings relating to health trips and accessibility of health services. It was apparent that trips to health facilities (such as doctors, clinics, and hospitals) were the most important trips for older people and were also the most difficult trips to make in rural areas. It was clear that this was due to a lack of synergy between transport operators and health service providers and also a lack of synergy and coordination between government bodies devising and implementing health policy and government bodies implementing transport policy. It was also discovered that driving cessation is a major issue for older people in rural Ireland, who are often forced to give up their car at some point due to ill health or visual impairment and that this leads to significant decreases in relative mobility.