The concept of ‘critical thinking’ appeared in Ancient Greece in the time of Plato and Aristotle. However, scientists began to study the impact of critical thinking on the formation of a free personality and learning process much later.

Everyone is born with the ability to think. But authoritarian upbringing, under the influence of stereotypes and prejudices existing in society, leads to losing this ability by children, relying on the warnings of their parents and the authoritative opinions of people with more experience and knowledge.

Today, Ukrainian education is undergoing fundamental changes in approaches to teaching and motivates teachers to study international experience and realize the achievements of pedagogical science in the educational process. Freedom of thought and creativity are becoming the main criteria in education. Only those students who can search for vital information, analyze it and come to the right conclusion, and thus, acquire important knowledge independently, can become successful in modern society.

The key tasks for teachers are to create favorable conditions to facilitate the thinking process during the lesson and to use different techniques, strategies, and tools to stimulate students’ thinking and learning. Mechanical memorization does not stimulate the thinking process in any way. Children, like sponges, absorb all the information from the environment (Chmel, Akhmad, 2018). Given that in the modern world, information flows have increased tenfold and not all sources contain reliable information, future professionals need to master the skills of separating true facts from what Bertrand Russell called ‘intellectual garbage’, analyzing and processing data, asking the right questions, forming their views, and looking for convincing evidence to confirm the correctness of their opinions (Bailin, Case, Coombs, Daniels,  1999).

Today, distance learning has created a new cognitive environment where students have more freedom in managing their studies by selecting specific rate of learning and appropriate technologies (Akhmad, Chmel, 2022). Moreover, Students get more independence in carrying out their research having unlimited access to various sources either trustworthy or not. Thus, it is important to be able to recognize information, analyze sources and motives, and make informed decisions.

Critical thinking is characterized by open-mindedness, honesty, a desire to seek reasoning, curiosity, flexibility, and a willingness to consider and respect other points of view. It does not tolerate lying or self-deception. Each person should be able to distinguish what he or she knows and what it is necessary to learn to become a well-educated professional.  Also, the development of critical thinking is incompatible with pressure from the teacher, who should instead be open and tolerant toward any ideas of students. Motivation and creativity in finding ways to solve problems play an important role.

The teacher should encourage students to ask questions and seek answers, apply the material they have learned to solve a problem, express their opinions, and discuss the ideas of other people. If there is an atmosphere of interest and openness in the classroom, students learn to freely express their guesses and assumptions, find out and analyze the opinions of their groupmates, and discuss possible conclusions based on the knowledge and information they have acquired. The role of the teacher is to adjust the process of communication and thinking of students.

References

1. Akhmad, I., & Chmel, V. (2022). New traditions in distance learning for engineering students. In Modern Science: Innovations and Prospects. Proceedings of the 14th International Scientific and Practical Conference (pp. 142–144). Stockholm, Sweden: SSPG Publish. URL: https://sci-conf.com.ua/xiv-mizhnarodna-naukovo-praktichna-konferentsiya-modern-science-innovations-and-prospects-16-18-10-2022-stokgolm-shvetsiya-arhiv/
2. Bailin, S., Case, R., Coombs, J. R., & Daniels, L. B. (1999). Conceptualizing critical thinking. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31(3), 285–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/002202799183133
3. Chmel, V., & Akhmad, I. (2018). Use of video materials for teaching critical thinking to students at technical universities. Theoretical Issues of Culture, Education and Upbringing: Collection of Scientific Papers, (2)58, 72 pages. Kyiv: Publishing Center of KNLU.