Educational Methods for Enhancing Students' Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

The globalisation of the modern information environment and the challenges of professional development make it crucial to develop students' critical thinking skills, including data analysis skills, the argumentation of points of view, and decision-making based on the information received. The study aims to analyse pedagogical strategies for developing critical thinking in students and identify the most effective ways to develop this skill in higher education students. The key components of this work are the identification of the most effective pedagogical strategies for developing critical thinking in students, their implementation in the educational process and the evaluation of learning outcomes for higher education students who used the selected strategies and for students who studied according to the requirements of the established educational programme. The methods of questioning teachers, analysing learning outcomes and conducting a pedagogical experiment were used to achieve this goal. Identification of the most effective pedagogical strategies for the development of critical thinking was carried out by forming a questionnaire based on the developed evaluation criteria, which included: the level of involvement of higher education students, the quality of argumentation, the practical application of the selected strategies and the development of reflection and self-assessment skills. In this part of the study, the most effective strategies for developing critical thinking were selected, including problem-based learning, discussions and debates, case analysis, and work with contradictory sources. The next stage is the implementation of these strategies in the educational process. A control and an experimental group of students were formed; their indicators before the study did not have significant differences, while after the experiment, the experimental group that used the outlined strategies for developing critical thinking increased the number of students with high levels of learning. It is determined that identifying the most effective strategies for developing critical thinking positively impacts its development and learning outcomes and forms a high level of professional training for higher education students.