MODERN TENDENCIES OF INTERPRETING THE CONCEPT OF "CRITICAL THINKING"
Nowadays, there is a complete computerisation in the society of the XXI century and there is unlimited access to all types of information. The main requirement for a successful person is the ability to carry out a critical understanding of the information coming from outside, to give an objective assessment of the current events, to separate important information from insignificant one. There are many different studies of the concept of “critical thinking» in pedagogy, psychology, and philosophy. It is interpreted by scientists quite variably depending on the field of science, for example, the ability, special type or form of thinking, the type of cognitive activity, a set of cognitive skills, the process of evaluation and analysis, a set of elements. Having studied theoretical research, we came to the conclusion that critical thinking is independent, open, social and reflective. It was found that the researchers agree that the main components of critical thinking are purposefulness and controllability of thinking, the validity of the opinion, the logic of argumentation, self-regulation, the involvement of all types of mental operations that are necessary in working with continuously incoming information (analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, concretizing, evaluation, interpretation). It is concluded that the information space is constantly updated with new data and ideas, and, consequently, many modern scientists add such important characteristics of critical thinking as reasoning, the ability to search for alternative ideas, introspection and analysis of incoming information, creativity and flexibility in finding ways to solve problems, the ability to predict possible results in decision-making, basic knowledge in psychology and conducting an effective dialogue. Summarizing the results of the study, despite a large number of different interpretations of the concept of “critical thinking», modern scientists continue studying the type of thinking and finding new elements of the concept in terms of the conditions of intensive mobility in modern life.