Why the belief that STEM majors can't think critically?

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

I really hate this debate, because it's not true. And it almost always results in some nitwit taking pot shots at other degree fields as if they are inferior. In truth, both sides bring different training and skills to the table. If the problem can be reduced to data, then STEM majors do quite well. When dealing with gray areas that don't yield to that kind of analysis, then humanities majors tend to do better. But that doesn't preclude critical thinking from either side of the coin. It has more to do with what kind of thinking is required.

However, I do think STEM majors have a harder time with abstract thinking. And I say that as someone who has spent a career working with engineers and other smart, technically-driven people from a wide array of clients. All smart people, without question. But it's always been fascinating to me how many of them are good at solving a specific problem, but have a difficult time thinking in terms of big picture or even pulling an answer out of left field. Not all, of course, but a very large percentage.

I remember consulting for Xerox pretty early in my career on one of their software platforms. Mind you, my degree was in English. But I also mastered their proprietary programming language pretty quickly, so much so that they were asking our team for feedback on how to push the product further and reach a wider market for the product. So I have a nice long presentation on how they needed to make the software user friendly, to not be code intensive, etc, etc., etc. You would have thought I was speaking Swahili.

"Why can't they just learn our code?" was the question I got. Or, even better, when I pointed out that their software didn't conform to a lot of standards for the industry they were trying to sell to, the response was, "There's nothing wrong with our software. I think the industry should conform to us." Yes, someone actually said that.

In other words, a lot of brilliant tactical thinkers who couldn't understand the strategic problem to be solved. Over the course of my career, one of my biggest challenges has been to get people with STEM skills to think beyond their fields and consider the needs of the person buying the product. It's crazy how hard that simple notion is for so many of them to grasp.

I very much agree.

Very interesting take. My brother has worked with some really, really brilliant people in his field (semiconductor industry) - PhDs from top techie programs, and sometimes, he's found that they're just a bit too rigid in their thinking and arguments, and they lose perspective on what's practical and more useful to the customer and the situation.

[Led Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by tnff

Ok, saw an article today that used the current Corona crisis to argue that we need more liberal arts/humanities majors because STEM didn't provide critical thinkers.

Putting aside the use of a crisis to justify a position, I'm more interested in the implication that STEM majors don't learn critical thinking skills. We've even seen that argument posed here in CD. What is the basis for this belief? Just looked up the STEM program where my daughter graduated. 29 of the credits were from various humanities requirements. In contrast, History only requires 8 science and math credits.

Where did that belief come from?

Nothing unusual. Especially in America. Free speech means every issue invites every opinion to join in the fray. Every belief pops up in the marketplace.

This argument is more about funding for colleges, and what gets funded and what doesn't and how its prioritized. Low scores on global tests probably prompted folks in the USA to get in a dither. And naturally, the other perspective is that "lets not go overboard".... and then the hyperbole cranks up.