DEVELOPMENT OF JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN'S ABILITY TO CREATE: SOME VECTORS OF INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS' CRITICAL THINKING

Abstract

Summary. The article presents a relatively new perspective on the development of primary school students' ability to create in the context of the methodological and theoretical concepts of critical pedagogy.

The author analyses the transformations in modern primary education that are directly or indirectly related to the peculiarity of the community of modern primary school students as representatives of the ‘digital generation’. We are talking about students who acquire education at an age stage of life that is sensitive to the development of creativity. The advantages of formative assessment of primary school students' learning achievements are identified and some pedagogical tools are described, the introduction of which contributes to the full implementation of the child-centredness principle.  The article emphasises the resources, in particular, pedagogical diagnostics as the basis for a motivated determination of the individual trajectory of development of primary school students' ability to create, the importance of adherence to the criterion approach defined by scientists and the principles of competent implementation in modern primary education practice.

The positive dynamics of the growth of scientific interest in the phenomenology of critical thinking is proved. The increase in modern requirements for enriching the potential of critical thinking as a factor of professional self-efficacy of a teacher, as well as the importance of developing this specific type of mental activity of a person at the main stage of his/her professional formation – in the conditions of a higher pedagogical school – is stated. It is recommended to use in the educational process of higher education such pedagogical technologies that allow systematic development of students' critical thinking, i.e. focus on “learning through research”. Their content addresses aspects of both content (in particular, the development of motivation to search for one's own reasoned evidence) and operational support, taking into account the outlined markers of manifestation (for example, through intellectual perseverance of the individual, trust in ‘reason’, intellectual empathy, etc.).