Theory and Practice: thinking styles in engineering and science

<body> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td align="center"> This page requires frames. <a href="http://dl.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/viewPDFInterstitial/218/190">Click here</a> for the non-frames version. <p>Non-frames version <a href="http://dl.acs.org.au/index.php/ajis/article/viewPDFInterstitial/218/190">available</a>.</p> </td> </tr> </table> <h1>Theory and Practice: thinking styles in engineering and science</h1> <h2><i>Hanspeter Schmid</i></h2> <h3>Australasian Journal of Information Systems</h3> <h4>Abstract</h4> <div>This paper describes knowledge as an element of thinking styles, which are properties of thinking collectives. According to the theory outlined here, the choice of a thinking style to solve a certain problem is relative, but once the thinking has been chosen, realism prevails. This paper also describes the genesis and development of thinking styles and, with them, of facts. <br /> The theoretical concepts are illustrated with two examples of thinking styles: a description of the thinking styles of circuit theorists and circuit designers (theory vs. practice), and a comparison of the thinking styles of two closely related technical societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). <br /> Applications of the theory are also presented in this paper; they include information management, documentation tools, and writing styles, and mainly draw from the author's own experience with these topics.</div> </body>