PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mirosław, BĄK
AU  - KALINICHENKO, Antonina
TI  - CRITICAL THINKING IN TECHNICAL ISSUES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
DP  - 2021 Feb 1
TA  - Trends in education
PG  - 78--88
VI  - 13
IP  - 2
AID - 10.5507/tvv.2020.019
IS  - 18058949
AB  - Critical rationalism is one of the dominant trends in contemporary philosophy and the scientific method is not radically different from the rational approach in other areas of human activity. The social belief in the conclusions drawn from scientific theories is based on the coherence of individuals' experience and the well-established knowledge obtained from the education process. The attitude that everything proven at a given moment can be questioned is the base of the critical thinking. The willingness to consider problems in a thoughtful way, supported by the ability to use methods of logical reasoning, plays an extremely important role in the education process. The critical thinking allows to get a logical consensus, not only by recognizing positions, arguments and conclusions presented by other people, but also by the skillful recognition of manipulation techniques and not succumbing to them. In view of the growing importance of informal education, multithreaded and scattered content in social media, unfair marketing strategies, the critical thinking can be a kind of barrier protecting the message based on scientific paradigms, it can allow to preserve individual identity and it can help to focus on individual's goals and may make new technology not an exogenous force over which we have no full control. In particular, this applies to the objectives of environmental education. It requires from the education system the new redefinition of educational goals and setting the new ones.