Didactic principles in the context of the use of information technology in education

Abstract

The article highlights general pedagogical principles focused on training specialists in a higher educational institution in the context of the use of information technology. The authors define didactic principles which determine education content, analyse their practical implementation. The study argues that the effectiveness of the use of information technology is ensured by the scientifically based combination of traditional and innovative teaching methods. It confirms the idea that there is an inextricable link between the use of pedagogical and modern information technologies in education. Since knowledge, unlike traditional skills rapidly becomes obsolete, the main task in education is to develop the ability to learn and think critically. A fundamentally new approach to learning, which is called “constructivist didactics”, was revealed. The essence of this direction in didactics is that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student and cannot be found in a book. The authors proved that it can be developed in the course of the relevant activity, on the basis of one’s own interests, abilities, and on the peculiarities of one’s intellect. Special attention is paid to the various forms of students’ productive activity and their self-organization in the learning process. The conditions of efficient development of critical thinking were determined, namely: the students should be prepared for the topic of discussion well in advance; have sufficient level of maturity; are independent in acquiring knowledge, be able to formulate a problem and find their own arguments.