CONCEPTUAL THINKING AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN LEARNERS

Abstract

The article analyzes the issue of the effectiveness of scientific concept acquisition, which form the basis for students’ mastery of knowledge not only within individual educational components but also have fundamental significance for their professional training and the cognitive process as a whole. The analysis of this issue involves tracing the organization of research on thinking, particularly, conceptual thinking. The development of the psychology of thinking has resulted in the formation of ontogenetic, functional, and system-structural approaches, as well as approaches that consider thinking as a process, activity, and a personal phenomenon, which have theoretical and practical significance. The aim of the article is to provide theoretical and empirical substantiation of the necessity of applying a conceptual approach to the formation of scientific concepts among students, based on understanding of the concept as an integrative unit that shapes intellectual development. The objectives of the empirical study include examining the consistency of the content and scope of conceptual structures, inductive-deductive relationships, the correlation between invariant and variable components, and the formation of reversible operations. The article presents the organization, implementation, and methods of an empirical study of the characteristics of conceptual structures that form the basis of concepts. The results of the sequential analysis demonstrate that the functioning of concepts is a flexible and dynamic process, while the difficulties experienced by participants are related to the differentiation of conceptual elements, establishing relationships between them, the creation of hierarchies, transition from concrete to abstract thinking, and the scope of mental space. The study revealed that these difficulties are determined by individual experience, the persistence of subjective representations, and simplified understanding. The researchers have enriched the issue of scientific concept formation by developing recommendations for the application of specific conceptual learning methods. The use of the conceptual change approach is considered appropriate, as it involves replacing subjective and everyday representations with a scientific understanding of concepts.