Developing Creative Thinking in Future Teachers as a Topical Issue of Higher Education

Professionally significant qualities of a modern teacher include his/her ability to think and act outside the box, to invent and develop new ways of addressing professional issues. Today, there is a contradiction between the society's need for creative and resourceful teachers and the inability of the vocational pedagogical training system to create the necessary conditions for organizing the process of forming creative thinking in students-future teachers. The analysis of the scientific literature on the problem under consideration leads to the following definition of "creative thinking": it is a type of thinking resulting in a creation of a subjectively new product, which, in turn, implies new formations in the cognitive activity. The researchers of creative thinking phenomenon define certain characteristics and properties, which distinguish this type of thinking from other types. Formation of creative thinking in students becomes possible under several subjective and objective conditions in the educational environment of a higher educational institution (HEI). To access the formed level of creative thinking in future teachers, the authors conducted an ascertaining experiment that suggested testing students by J. Bruner’s method and questioning them according to the authorial method. The analysis of the data obtained showed that the conditions created in a HEI are not sufficient for formation of high-level creativity. It was found that only a third of the surveyed students have a high level of creative thinking. In addition, the study confirmed the hypothesis that regular leisure fiction reading contributes to a higher level of creativity in future teachers. The study of the problem of developing creative thinking in future teachers requires further examination of factors and conditions, which determine the effectiveness of this process in a HEI.