In order to be prepared for future college or careers, 21st century students should have critical thinking in their arsenal of soft skills. Most teachers and schools feel that critical thinking skills are important to teach, but unfortunately they have a lack of understanding of what critical thinking is and what strategies are best utilized to teach and assess it. Technology and engineering education is a particularly appropriate setting for the types of instructional strategies that appear to be the most effective in teaching critical thinking. T & E teachers are used to being facilitators in their labs and having students work on open-ended technological problems with rich dialogue and questioning in all phases of the activities. Key cognitive questions should be planned out in advance and be matched to the purpose being taught. With critical thinking ideas infused in course assessments, technology and engineering students have a lead on developing the critical thinking skills they will need throughout life to become discerning and autonomous individuals.