COGNITIVE PROCESS FEATURES OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN THE MODERN INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

It is substantiated in the psychological and pedagogical context the necessity of studying the characteristics of the digital generation, which are represented by modern students in accordance with the theory of generations by W. Strauss and N. Howe. It is determined that the cognitive process transformations and psychological characteristics of the individual, which reflect the phenomenon of clip thinking, exacerbate the problems of higher education student professional training. The essence of the phenomenon is the interrupted display of the information flow with a high speed of switching information fragments, without taking into account the connections between them, contributing to the lack of perception integrity of the information content and its reflective assimilation. Its main advantages are the high speed of information processing, dynamism in cognitive activity, accelerated and protective brain reaction to a large amount of information. At the same time, its key disadvantages are interpreted as the inability to perceive a long linear sequence of homogeneous information, including book texts; reduced attention span and lower academic performance and knowledge acquisition; increased inability to isolate the main point or think critically. The main ways of effective pedagogical interaction with students of the digital generation in the educational process are the active use of mobile learning, the combination of high-quality content and interesting interactive elements; computer visualisation of educational information, modification of the presentation format through creolized texts, the introduction of ideas of fragmentary presentation of material with preliminary structuring and its gradual deepening; the introduction of technologies for the development of critical thinking, including the method of “6 journalistic questions”.
 Keywords: higher education student; digital generation; cognitive processes; clip thinking; multitasking; reduced attention span; online content; visualization; critical thinking.