Teachers’ Professional Skills as a Factor in the Development of Students’ Critical Thinking

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Abstract

The modern generation of students actively use technology and have access to information at any time. However, having access to information and being able to competently work with information are two different tasks. The use of information in any form is impossible without the use of critical thinking skills, therefore the level and quality of critical thinking is of paramount importance. Considering that in the modern education system, the traditional type of teaching is quite common — the classroom-lesson form of teaching, where the teacher is the leading figure, providing students with ready-made knowledge at lectures. At the same time, students take a passive position in relation to the assimilation of knowledge. Is it becoming important to understand how to develop students’ higher-order skills, including critical thinking, in this type of learning? In a study conducted on a sample of students from one of the leading national research universities in Russia (4,897 students), using the multivariate regression method, it was proved that teaching within the framework of the traditional type of education can be positively associated with the level of development of critical thinking if teachers have developed subject-logical and organizational competence.

General Information

Keywords: higher education, critical thinking, in-class education, traditional type of teaching, constructionist type of teaching, pedagogical conditions

Journal rubric: Educational Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/pse.2020250608

Funding. The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project number 19-313-90039\19.

Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful to E.A. Terentyev, Director of the Postgraduate School in Education of the Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics, for his help in preparing this article.

For citation: Koreshnikova J.N., Froumin I.D. Teachers’ Professional Skills as a Factor in the Development of Students’ Critical Thinking. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie = Psychological Science and Education, 2020. Vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 88–103. DOI: 10.17759/pse.2020250608. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Julia N. Koreshnikova, PhD Student, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE), Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7566-0028, e-mail: koreshnikova@hse.ru

Isak D. Froumin, Doctor of Education, Professor, Head of the Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE), Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9228-3770, e-mail: ifroumin@hse.ru

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