Modern approaches and specifics of the formation of critical historical thinking in teaching Russian history in higher educational institutions

Abstract

In the context of information overload and the spread of distorted historical narratives, the development of critical historical thinking becomes one of the key tasks in teaching national history at universities. This study aims to identify modern approaches and the specifics of forming these competencies, as well as to test the effectiveness of a specially developed methodological framework. The problem lies in the fact that traditional lecture-seminar formats of teaching are mainly focused on the reproductive assimilation of knowledge, which does not contribute to the development of analytical skills. The study uses a comprehensive methodological approach, including an analysis of federal educational standards, teaching materials from leading universities, and a pedagogical experiment. The experiment was conducted in 2023-2025 at a regional university with the participation of 124 students, divided into control and experimental groups. For the latter, a modular program was introduced, based on interactive and problem-oriented technologies: case analyses with conflicting sources, participation in debates, and the completion of research projects. The results showed that even at the intermediate stage, the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in skills for analyzing complex historical sources, especially personal documents and publicistic writing. The final testing revealed a statistically significant increase in the integrated indicator of critical thinking in the experimental group from 2.23 to 4.58 points, while in the control group the increase was only 0.70 points. A survey confirmed that students highly value the effectiveness of interactive methods, linking them to the growth of their own analytical abilities. Thus, the introduction of a systematic set of interactive and research technologies into the teaching of national history can significantly increase students' level of critical historical thinking. This requires a restructuring of curricula and preparing teachers for the role of facilitators of cognitive activity. The obtained data can be used to modernize teaching methods for humanities disciplines in higher education.