Abstract:

Globalisation, which increases the demands on human cognitive abilities associated with critical thinking and information orientation, is inevitably reflected in how foreign languages are taught today. To a greater extent, not only students of teacher training programs when planning their teaching, emphasise lower cognitive processes. Thus, their goals are strongly oriented to develop memory and understanding. Future, qualified foreign language teachers are required to develop critical thinking because they will pursue the profession of primary decision-making. Their work will have to adequately evaluate alternative aspects and possibilities leading to the search for specific activities and procedures to develop all students effectively. Based on these facts, the article aims to determine the level of critical thinking competence and strategies focused on higher cognitive processes of the teachers from the eastern part of Slovakia studying additional pedagogical study. These teachers have not been qualified in a teacher training program. If they want to become fully qualified, it is required to have further pedagogical study in English language teaching. The study primarily aimed to determine how they perceive critical thinking competence development. The objectives were to identify the readiness of to-be qualified English teachers to develop their students' critical thinking. In addition, it intends to detect their level of critical thinking competence. The authors exploited a combined methodology of qualitative-quantitative character. Firstly, a critical thinking test was applied to measure the level of critical thinking of "to be" qualified teachers. Secondly, individual interviews were used to identify possible interventions aimed at applying procedures stimulating the development of critical thinking and the development of higher cognitive processes of students.

Keywords:

Critical thinking, higher order thinking skills, development, additional pedagogical study, foreign language teacher training program.