РОЗВИТОК КРИТИЧНОГО МИСЛЕННЯ УЧНІВ ЗАКЛАДІВ ЗАГАЛЬНОЇ СЕРЕДНЬОЇ ОСВІТИ

The article is devoted to the problem of development of critical thinking of students of general educational institutions. The article deals with the concept of "critical thinking", forms and methods that contribute to its development. The author shares the results of the study of the concept of "critical thinking" during which it was revealed that scientists of many countries of the world studied this problem, namely: American psychologists M. Lipmani and Daina Halpern, Canadian psychologist R.H. Zhdonson, native scientist O. Tyaglo, philosopher and the teacher J. Dewey and others. In the studies, each scientist presented his own understanding of this problem. The author pays special attention to key elements, signs, characteristics and conditions for the development of critical thinking. The concept of "critical thinking" has been used in scientific and methodological literature for more than half a century. This concept is quite versatile. From a pragmatic point of view, critical thinking is defined as a scientific approach to solving a wide range of problems – from ordinary to professional. From the point of view of philosophers, critical thinking is the ability to think logically and argue. Critical thinking is a process of analyzing, synthesizing and justifying the evaluation of the reliability of information; the ability to perceive the situation globally, find the causes and alternatives; is the ability to generate or change their own position based on facts and arguments, to correctly apply the results to problems and make informed decisions. Formation of critical thinking skills involves the development of students' ability to analyze educational information from a logical and personal approach in order to apply the results obtained to both standard and non-standard situations and problems, and provides for the ability to formulate new questions, to find arguments, to take independent thoughtful decisions.