Engineering Thinking: Using Benjamin Bloom and William Perry to Design Assignments

This paper shows how William Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual Development and Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives can inform the design of writing assignments in engineering. After describing Perry’s and Bloom’s models, the article examines the cognitive tasks involved in two assignments from mechanical and electrical engineering and demonstrates how these schemes can be applied to enhance the role of writing as a mode of learning. The priciples of assignment design illustrated here can guide WID consultants and engineering faculty as they create assignments in the disciplines and in technical communication courses.