Characteristics of the thinking style of student youth

The necessity of optimising the educational process in higher education institutions considering the requirements of the times determines the significance of addressing the psychological characteristics of its participants. The significance of the individual’s thinking activity in learning and the insufficient development of the problem of its features in modern student youth have led to the purpose of the present study – to identify the style characteristics of the thinking activity of student youth. The study highlighted the findings of an empirical study of the style characteristics of students’ thinking activity, conducted using a series of psychodiagnostic methods. The data obtained by each of the methods in the sample as a whole and within the following groups were analysed: boys, girls, first-year, second-year, third-year, fourth-year, and master’s students. The methods of mathematical and statistical data processing were employed to determine the reliability of differences between the groups in terms of the levels of development of certain characteristics of thinking activity. As a result of applying factor analysis, eight factors were identified that structure the description of the style characteristics of students’ thinking activity: creativity of the style of thinking, style of perception of information, style of evaluation of information, style of information transformation, style of operating with symbols, style of orientation of the thinking process (result), style of orientation to the quality of the result, activity of the thinking process (orientation to the search for alternatives). Based on the analysis of empirical data, it was concluded that the systemic nature of the style of thinking activity of students, the diversity of style characteristics of students’ thinking activity, the presence of comparable and differing characteristics of the style of thinking activity of students of various courses and genders. The practical value of the obtained findings lies in the possibility of using them to improve teaching methods in higher education institutions, in understanding the causes of challenges for individual students in learning, in guiding the selection of psychodiagnostic tools in case of need to clarify the characteristics of individual parameters of the style of thinking activity