As faculty we seek to not only prepare our students
for their future careers, but also to instill the ability to
think critically and consciously about the impact their
decisions will have on their health and quality of life. In
an effort to find classroom approaches and
methodological designs that push students to move
away from ingrained passive expectations of education
towards an active engagement with content outside the
classroom, the authors developed two photography
assignments with the hope of encouraging critical
thinking and student engagement. With our combined
teaching experience of 38 years, it had been an ongoing
frustration to face the cognitive disengagement of
undergraduate students: less critical thought and more
expectation for simple memorization of content. The
elimination of creativity and meaningful thought
processes like critical thinking and problem solving not
only make health science undergraduates continually
less prepared for graduate programs but also for their
future professions. The present article explores the use
of photography in two health sciences courses as a
catalyst for the encouragement of critical thinking,
creativity, engagement and problem solving.