Keyword: «stressful socially oriented situations»

Socially oriented situations associated with disruptions in interaction systems, negative informational and psychological influence from individuals with destructive behavior often arise in the educational environment and can be characterized as stressful. These situations require teachers to mobilize all their efforts to adequately analyze the situation and competently manage their own behavior. This largely depends on the level of critical thinking, which should be developed in preservice teachers while they are still students. The goal of this study was to identify the influence of critical thinking on the choice of behavioral strategies by preservice teachers in stressful socially oriented situations. Based on the data obtained, we developed an additional educational program to enhance critical thinking development and substantiate the pedagogical conditions for its successful implementation. Sample: ordinary groups of Russian and Belarusian students from pedagogical universities (n = 320). Methodological approaches: systems-based and student-centered. Methods: Coping with stress questionnaire (COPE-30A) by C. Carver, M. Scheier, J. Weintraub, critical thinking test by L. Starkey. Results: It was found that critical thinking was better developed in Belarusian students. In the Russian sample, active coping strategies, planning and inhibition of coping predominate, while in the Belarusian sample, active coping, planning and positive reformulation predominate. Strong negative correlations in the Belarusian sample were found between the level of critical thinking and the strategies of «mental avoidance of the problem», «humor», and «behavioral avoidance of the problem». In the Russian sample, a negative correlation was recorded between the level of critical thinking and the use of active coping; positive correlations – with the strategies of «concentration on emotions» and «behavioral avoidance of the problem». The obtained empirical data were taken into account when designing a critical thinking development program. The theoretical significance lies in substantiating and identifying the developmental characteristics and relationships between critical thinking and behavioral strategies in stressful social situations among preservice teachers from Russia and Belarus. The practical significance lies in developing a program ready for implementation and describing the pedagogical conditions for its successful implementation.