On the issue of development of students' cognitive abilities in a modern university

Changes in the higher education system imply a reorientation of the educational process towards the formation of students' competencies aimed at the social order of society and the state. A significant role among these competencies is assigned to the development of cognitive abilities. Traditional education assumed the development of these skills through text, which is not entirely acceptable for the current generation of students who read noticeably less than their predecessors. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to select the most effective means to promote the development of memory, attention, speech, and thinking logic. The authors of the article, using the example of historical disciplines, came to the conclusion that an important tool for the development of cognitive abilities at the present stage is a workbook. It allows you to structure and expand the acquired knowledge on the subject, train various types of memory, select, critically analyze and interpret available information, monitor and self-monitor the progress of students in a particular course. The diverse format of the proposed assignments, non-standard tasks, and creative projects makes the workbook a universal tool for developing cognitive abilities and improving the effectiveness of teaching in the disciplines of natural science and humanities.