FORMATION OF STUDENTS’ TECHNICAL THINKING BY MEANS OF EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS IN A STEM ENVIRONMENT

This article highlights the aspects of developing students’ technical thinking within a STEM-oriented educational environment through the use of educational robotics. It has been demonstrated that technical thinking is one of the key components of modern professional training. It enables students to solve engineering and technical problems, engage in design, modeling, and project-based activities. The study emphasizes that educational robotics serves as an effective tool for stimulating technical creativity, fostering an engineering mindset, developing 21st-century competencies, and applying knowledge from physics, mathematics, computer science, and technology in practical ways. The purpose of this article is to justify the potential of educational robotics as a means of developing students’ technical thinking within a STEM environment and to outline directions for its effective implementation in contemporary educational practice. The objectives include: revealing the essence of the concept of “technical thinking” and its significance in the professional training of students; describing the psychological and pedagogical features of developing learners’ technical abilities; identifying the potential of educational robotics in fostering technical thinking in the context of STEM education; analyzing modern approaches to the use of robotics in the educational process and examples of project-based learning; outlining prospects for further research in the field of technical thinking development through STEM technologies. The research methodology was based on the analysis of psychological-pedagogical and scientific-methodological literature, generalization of pedagogical experience, observation of educational practices, and analysis of project models implemented within robotics instruction. The study found that integrating educational robotics with the interdisciplinary approach of STEM education promotes the development of spatial imagination, logical-operational skills, critical thinking, and engineering approaches to problem-solving. The article provides examples of project-based activities aimed at enhancing students’ technical thinking. In the conclusions, the importance of systematically implementing educational robotics into the learning process, the need to develop appropriate educational programs, train pedagogical personnel, and update the content of education are emphasized.