IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES TO DEVELOP STUDENTS’ CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING IN ESL CLAS SES

Abstract

The article is aimed at summarizing theoretical and empirical studies on the development of students’ creative and critical thinking in ESL classes by means of information technologies and digital tools. Creativity and constructive criticism are the 21st centuries essential skills. The novelty of the study deals with critical overview of the latest multidisciplinary works. The purpose of the research is to consider the implementation of new information technologies to develop students’ cognitive skills. Creative thinking focuses on person’s abilities to come up with new, non-standard, original solutions to problems and challenges. Critical thinking means a way of thinking in which people have an attitude involving questioning such arguments and conclusions. Development of critical and creative thinking is tightly connected with the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy, a hierarchical ordering of cognitive skills. Revised Bloom’s taxonomy implies 126 digital planning verbs. Based on Bloom’s taxonomy, teachers plan educational goals and objectives, project specific methodological steps with the help of didactic tools and achieve excellent learning outcomes. Constituents of the educational process such as setting and assessment of course work, development of materials and visual aids, classroom practice, computer assisted language learning enable to enhance collaboration between a teacher and students in ESL classes. Information competence is an integral part of a foreign language teacher’s professional competence. A comparative analysis of the latest educational digital tools according to some criteria is highlighted in the paper with the purpose to popularize innovations in education. It is emphasized that information technologies act as a link between educational materials and learning outcomes and encourage students to think broadly and use skills, such as resourcefulness, imagination, constructive criticism.