Critical Incident Questionnaire – Engagement in Engineering Education

To direct students’ attention toward what they learned from the contributions of their peers during class discussion.

Students produce written compositions in response to a set of small prompts designed to support them in reflecting on key takeaways from their peers.

self-regulation, metacognitive awareness

Critical incident questionnaires can be fully integrated into a classroom learning environment, bringing support for discussion and reflection.
Critical incident questionnaires allow students to gain a broader, more accurate understanding of their and their peers’ thinking processes.
Critical incident questionnaires encourage students to evaluate their own learning and double-check their understanding.

Critical incident questionnaires can be completed on a weekly or monthly basis. Their prompts should be made more specific than that of a reflective essay.
A typical questionnaire includes the following prompt types: (a) What was the most important thing you learned from discussion this week? (b) What was the most surprising or unsettling idea you heard in discussion this week and why? (c) What was the contribution from a peer that most inspired or impressed you and why?