2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Fostering Critical Thinking through Real-World Case-Based Learning in Construction Engineering Education

Presented at CONST 9 - Innovative Course Designs: From Materials Labs to Bid‑Day Simulations

Critical thinking is recognized as a key competency in engineering education and is commonly included among learning outcomes defined by accreditation agencies and higher education quality assurance frameworks. However, its operationalization and assessment remain challenging, particularly in highly applied technical courses. This study examines the development of critical thinking in an undergraduate construction engineering course through the implementation of three real-world case-based activities drawn from professional practice. An exploratory and descriptive research design was adopted, with no experimental manipulation. Critical thinking was analyzed using a rubric based on the Paul and Elder Intellectual Standards, employed as an analytical framework to examine patterns in students’ reasoning across activities. The analysis focused on a subgroup of 14 students who completed all three activities. Descriptive results reveal differentiated developmental patterns across the nine critical thinking standards proposed by Paul and Elder, indicating that the criteria do not evolve uniformly across successive case-based activities. Standards associated with foundational and analytical processes exhibit relatively stable performance, while those linked to more complex reasoning show more pronounced changes across activities. Academic performance and student perception indicators were examined as complementary contextual information. Descriptive differences in final course grades and pass rates are observed according to levels of participation in the activities, without implying causal relationships. Perception data, drawn from an institutional instrument, are used to contextualize the findings and show relatively stable trends across academic terms. Overall, the findings highlight the value of real-world case-based activities, analyzed through an explicit critical thinking framework, for revealing differentiated patterns of reasoning development in highly applied engineering courses.

Authors

Prof. Carmen Paz Munoz Universidad Andres Bello [biography]

Carmen Paz has a degree in Civil Construction from the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and a master’s degree in Real Estate Development from the Universidad de Chile. She has over 22 years of experience in the areas of concrete construction, the cement industry, ready-mixed concrete, construction process consultancy, and concrete deterioration and durability. In addition, she has more than 16 years of experience in university and field-based teaching. She is the Director of the Construction Engineering program at the Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago, Chile, and a permanent contributing columnist for the Negocio & Construcción magazine. Her areas of interest include improving academic management in the Construction Engineering degree program and seeking new ways to enhance the experience of students and teaching professionals at the university. She also focuses her efforts on recruiting and retaining students to the program and ensuring they can learn key concepts in the most meaningful manner possible.
Dr. Monica Quezada-Espinoza http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0383-0179 Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile [biography]

Monica Quezada-Espinoza is a professor and researcher at the School of Engineering at Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago, Chile, where she collaborates with the Educational and Academic Innovation Unit (UNIDA) as an instructor in active learning methodologies and mentors engineering faculty in educational research. She is the Secretary of the Women in Engineering Division (WIED) of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and an associate researcher in the STEM Latin America Network, specifically in the STEM + Gender group. Her research interests are diverse and focus on university education in STEM fields, faculty and professional development, research-based methodologies, and the use of evaluation tools and technology for education. She is also passionate about investigating conceptual learning in abstract physics topics, developing strategies to improve the retention of first-year engineering students, and enhancing skills and competencies in higher education. Additionally, Monica is dedicated to exploring gender issues in STEM education, with a particular emphasis on studying and proposing improvements for the inclusion of women in highly male-dominated fields. For more information on her work, visit her ORCID profile.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

« View session