New technologies, globalization, demographic problems have changed society [Education Commission. (2019)]. The results of education, which were enough for previous generations, for example, knowledge of some facts, are not enough to become successful in our time. Critical thinking, the ability to cooperate with other people, solve problems, social skills, employers and educational researchers recognized as the most important for the 21st century. The education system has changed the understanding of its goals and includes an increasingly wide range of skills in educational programs. The school takes responsibility for both cognitive and socio-emotional development of children, realizing that they are inseparable from each other and should occur in the same space. The main international document adopted by UNESCO [ Education for Sustainable Development Goals: learning objectives UNESCO 2017]defined "sustainable development goals," as well as cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioral learning outcomes.
Over the past few years, the educational agenda is relevant around the world, aimed at moving from the traditional orientation of schooling to the formation of subject knowledge and skills to the creation of conditions for the development of modern key competencies (or skills) of the 21st century. Despite the various configurations of these skills in various models, the very set of these skills remains quite stable. In addition to the actual subject skills (or literacy), Partnership for 21st Century Learning offers a framework for 21st century skills, which distinguishes "innovative skills" - critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, the ability to communicate and collaborate, as well as a large set of "life" or "career" skills [The Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2019)].
At the World Economic Forum, the report "A New View of Education" presented a new model in which educational results that can be generated at all stages of education are divided into three types: basic literacy, competence and quality.
The central part of this model is occupied by 4K competencies: creativity, critical thinking, communication and cooperation (interaction and cooperation). Why have they been identified as key or core?
A number of studies are known, the purpose of which was to find out what competencies the professional community is guided by, which are laid in the national educational agenda of certain countries. One of them was held in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, among which just the modern leaders of education - Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, rapidly rising in the world ranking of educational achievements Vietnam [UNESCO. (2019). ]. The researchers examined documents defining educational policies and educational standards of these countries, and identified the most common competencies, values, attitudes and other educational results that should be formed in students.
Among them, the first positions are occupied by critical and innovative, or creative, thinking, the ability to manage and interact with others.
A similar study, one of the last and largest, conducted in 152 countries, showed that most often in documents determining the direction of the development of education and its content, such competencies as communication, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving are mentioned [Education System Alignment for 21st century skills. Focus On Assessment.].
These competencies are based on the abilities and skills of students, which are manifested as imagination, the generation of ideas, the construction of argumentation, the isolation of a shortage of information and the search, the formulation of their own ideas and the development of others, the assessment of their own assumptions and judgments, the adoption of the goals of the group and the assessment of the overall result. The selected skills are the basis of research activities of students, are the basis of the ability to learn autonomously and in cooperation with others.
For the successful development of these most important competencies, it is necessary to distinguish and take into account the insufficiently demanded pedagogical potential of the lesson in domestic educational practice. The lesson is the time and conditions for mastering and theoretical generalization of subject content, acquiring educational experience. But at the same time, the lesson can develop the ability of the student to independently acquire and discover, create knowledge, he learns to work in a team, manage his behavior and activities.
How can critical thinking be defined? The basis in the understanding of critical thinking can be considered the approach formulated in the works of K. Popper, primarily his "critical attitude," that is, the statement that we learn from errors, and not through the accumulation of data.
The second important point is the understanding that the best condition for critical thinking is the social situation of communication and interaction: "I can be mistaken, and you can be mistaken, but together we can gradually approach the truth"[Open society and its enemies.Moscow: Phoenix].
In a similar way determines the situation of cognitive development of D. Hetty. For him, cognitive development, or cognitive acceleration, taking place in the process of learning, is a social process that is facilitated by a qualitative dialogue between students with the support of the teacher. At the same time, it is important that any educational situation represents some cognitive conflict, which becomes a challenge for the student's thinking [Hattie, J. (2012)].
This understanding of the educational situation as problematic, necessary for the critical thinking of students to develop, is the basis of the new educational tasks presented in these recommendations.
As the main elements of critical thinking, several basic skills can be distinguished.
1 Analysis: the ability to find connections between statements, questions, arguments.
2 Assessment: the ability to evaluate the reliability of statements, the credibility of arguments.
3 Explanation (argumentation): the ability to explain the course of your thoughts/method, to protect your conclusions.
4 Hypothesis derivation (decision planning): the ability to form hypotheses and draw conclusions themselves, to detect a lack of information.
5 Self-regulation (control): reflection, self-examination and correction.
The development of creativity of students can be facilitated not only by specially designed tasks, but also by a special organization of activities when performing them.
1. Curiosity (active interest in the task):
interest in the surrounding world (task situation) and desire to learn more about the surrounding world (about various aspects of the task situation; expresses associations);
self-searching for answers to your own questions. Active search for new information (including in unexpected sources).
2. Creating ideas (imagination). Producing your own ideas. Two aspects stand out:
originality of the proposed ideas;
flexibility or mobility, the ability to produce a large number of ideas.
3. Development of proposed ideas:
evaluation of proposed ideas from different positions and search for their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve the idea or abandon it;
the ability to quickly rebuild its activities in changed conditions and with the advent of new information about the object of the study.
Key characteristics-indicators of the lesson on the formation of critical and creative thinking.
- the teacher provides students with maximum choice of techniques and methods of work;
- educational tasks do not explicitly contain a solution algorithm, do not necessarily have a single solution;
- The work draws knowledge from different fields;
- The teacher encourages and encourages discussion;
- group work is organized.
References
1. Popper, K. (1992). Open society and its enemies. Moscow: Phoenix. (in Russ.)
2. UNESCO. (2019). Education for Sustainable Development Goals: learning objectives UNESCO 2017. Retrieved from unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48 223/pf0000247444.locale=ru.
3. Care, E., Kim, H., Vista, A., & Anderson, K. (2019). Education System Alignment for 21st century skills. Focus On Assessment. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/education-system-alignment-for-21st-century-skills.
4. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2019). Framework for 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from http://www.battelleforkids.org/networks/p21/frameworks-resources.
5. Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Routledge.
6. Education Commission. (2019). The Learning Generation. Investing in education for a changing world. Retrieved from https://report.educationcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Learning_Generation_Full_Report.pdf.
7. UNESCO. (2019). School and teaching practices for twenty-first century challenges: lessons from the Asia-Pacific region. Retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48 223/pf0000244022.locale=ru.