Introduction. Today, a modern state needs people capable to regular intensive implementation of innovative activity in order to keep competitiveness in a dynamically changing world that is undergoing a significant increase in the amount of new information and its fast obsolescence. The need of modern economy for innovators inevitably leads to the shift of priorities in education from memorising and reproducing of a specified amount of knowledge to the development of students’ independent thinking, which, accordingly, requires teachers’ certain qualities and critical mentality. The aim of the research was to identify the components of critical thinking important for innovative activity and search for the ways of development of these components in young teachers, entering a master’s programme Modern Natural Science. Methodology and research methods. In the course of the research, the methods of the analysis and synthesis of scientific and scientific-methodological publications devoted to the development of higher order thinking skills and the concept of STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) were employed. The assessment of the level of students’ thinking and its changes was carried out through diagnostic tasks and empirical observation of educational and project-based activity of undergraduates and school students. Results and scientific novelty. The key components of critical thinking for the implementation and realisation of innovative activities were identified: creative, rational, logical, reflexive and metacognitive. To assess the development of components, a set of problem-situational tasks (STEM cases) was developed. Diagnostic tools were introduced to measure the level of critical thinking skills formation. The authors described the methodology for working with STEM cases through the example of the development and presentation of hybrid technology of lifting the sunken ship with a damaged hull, based on the students’ understanding of characteristics of the aggregate state of water. The results of approbation of the presented methodology used in small groups at various educational levels prove that its implementation contributes to the development of critical thinking in students, if the plots of cues are based on real problems of science and technology, and the solution requires contextual use of educational material, building a mathematical model, generating rational ideas of new or improved technologies. Practical significance. The research demonstrates the possibilities of acquisition by students of higher order thinking skills within the studied academic disciplines in the natural-science cycle without introduction of a special course in educational programmes. © 2019 Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University. All Rights Reserved.
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