ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКИЕ, ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЕ И ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ РАЗВИТИЯ НАВЫКОВ КРИТИЧЕСКОГО МЫШЛЕНИЯ СТУДЕНТОВ

Abstract

Innovative education is intended to develop students’ critical thinking in both
pedagogical and psychological terms, to guide learners towards creative ways of solving real-life
problems, and to foster self-development and self-education. There is no single, guaranteed route
to critical thinking; there is, however, a definable set of teaching conditions through which critical
thinkers can be nurtured. This article examines the theoretical and pedagogical-psychological
foundations of developing students’ critical thinking in higher education. It clarifies the concept
by distinguishing critical thinking from related but distinct mental processes such as memorisation
and comprehension; it sets out the pedagogical conditions and learner commitments on which the
development of critical thinking depends; and it analyses five defining features of critical thinking
— its independence, its reliance on information as a starting point, its origin in problems, its
pursuit of well-grounded argument, and its fundamentally social character. The article concludes
that critical thinking is best understood not as a technique to be delivered but as a disposition
cultivated through sustained pedagogical and psychological conditions, and that writing is among
its most powerful instruments