FORMING DESIGN THINKING SKILLS DURING THE EDUCATION OF FUTURE SPECIALISTS

The article revealed the meaning of the concepts of «thinking», «design thinking» by theoretically analyzing the scientific works and identifying the psychological and pedagogical features of formation of students' design thinking skills in the educational process. The levels of development of design thinking skills of future specialists, the authors relied on the design thinking criteria, components, and terms cited by scientists in the research. Diagnosing design thinking using a three-level stage, components such as cognitive, analytical, and activity were distinguished by the improvement of the process of forming students' design thinking skills. The experimental part of the research was planned and experimental work was carried out using effective methods. Surveys were conducted to determine design thinking by methods of «critical thinking», J. Barrett's «Critical Analysis» methodology, and Michael Chaifitz's test to assess the ability to find logical errors. The results of the pedagogical experiment showed the low level of design thinking of students. It needs creation and usage for improving the educational process in HEI. A work plan was created, and during its implementation, the solution to the problem of determining the effectiveness of design thinking was demonstrated based on the analysis of the results of each of the conducted methods. Comparing the results, none of the stages of development of design thinking could exclude an insufficient level; showed the highest indicator of students' cognitive stage; the analytical component of design thinking posed the greatest challenge, with only 69% of students indicating they were ready to make logical connections, and 13% saying they had great difficulty making them. It is possible to influence students by encouraging responsibility and independence, realizing awareness, creativity, self-development, learning to monitor, generalize, compare, and increase their attention in order to form design thinking skills, and the formation of design thinking skills is not enough.