Elaboration of criteria and indicators for assessing students' systems thinking development

The article addresses the problem of determining the criteria of assessing systems thinking development within professional training in the field of Economics, as well as the issue of determining indicators and levels of systems thinking. The author conducted an analysis of dissertations on this topic resulting in identifying two ways of classification prevailing in research over the past one and a half decades - one being based on components of systems thinking and the other – on the process of problem solving using a systems approach. The author illustrates each method with a characterization of various researchers' position, considering its applicability to the experiment in terms of completeness, consistency of definitions and non-overlap of essential parameters. In the second part of the article, the author proposes the following criteria for ascertaining the formation of systemic thinking: motivational, theoretical, integrative and creative. The expected results for each of these criteria are described as four levels: insufficient, minimum, advanced, and high. The conclusion states the advantage of such a structure enabling an individualized assessment, over the previously widespread practice of generalized description of the of systems thinking levels.