CRITICAL THINKING AS A PEDAGOGICAL PHENOMENON

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the positions of different generations of critical thinking researchers in relation to the definition of its essence, possibilities of development, didactic approaches in this field. We show how the definition of critical thinking changed with the adherence to its study by philosophers, methodologists, psychologists-behavioralists, specialists in the content of education. We consider the attempts of modern authors to adapt the definition and interpretation of the concept of critical thinking to achieve a certain pedagogical purpose or to design a particular pedagogical (educational) model. The text reveals the role of the taxonomy of the educational objectives and results of B. Blum for preparing a methodology for developing the critical thinking of pupils by means of separate subjects. We propose our own definition of critical thinking as a separate type of thinking which has the characteristics such as activity, purposefulness, autonomy, discipline and reflectivity, and involves the development in the process of learning the ability of a person: to identify problems, analyze, synthesize, evaluate information from any source, put forward alternatives, and to evaluate them, to choose the way to solve a problem or to state his/her own position on it and to justify his/her point of view, to make a conscious choice and act. Such an understanding of the essence of the concept allows us to construct learning as a gradual formation of the pupil’s mental thinking skills with simultaneous attention to changing the characteristics of the process of his/her thinking. The article also presents the structure of critical thinking as a psychological formation of a person, which combines cognitive, emotional-value and behavioral aspects. Therefore, we think that the pedagogical model of the learning process should take into account this structure and give the teacher the opportunity to provide appropriate impacts on all the components of critical thinking. Such a model is the basis for constructing a technology of pupil’s critical thinking development that takes into account each of the components, first of all, the creation of reasonable grounds for selecting the most appropriate methods, forms, and means of teaching and evaluation of its results by the teacher. We anticipate that a holistic model of technology of developing critical thinking of pupils will describe the goal setting (ascertaining perspective and current goals of learning), approaches to the organization of learning (its forms, methods and means), and the development of methods for assessing academic achievements of pupils from the point of view of critical thinking.