Edita Butrimė, Silvija Rakutienė, Dalija Gudaitytė

Developing Creativity as a Precondition of Critical Thinking in Language Studies at the University of Health Sciences Using Non-traditional Activities

Developing Creativity as a Precondition of Critical Thinking in Language Studies at the University of Health Sciences Using Non-traditional Activities

Edita Butrimė

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Lithuania

Silvija Rakutienė

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Lithuania

, Dalija Gudaitytė,

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Lithuania

Critical thinking, like other abilities formed by liberal education, should be developed with the help of active learning methods while studying not only general university education, but also professional education disciplines. An educated person must be able to interpret information creatively and make informed decisions based on data. Creativity is no longer associated only with the field of art and culture, but also with education, business, research and health studies, emphasizing such components as hypothesis generation, synthesis, analysis, application of existing knowledge in various fields. The importance of creativity in higher education is revealed through the unique feature representing creativity - the ability to make unique decisions in new and diverse situations.

The mission and goals of the institution that trains health specialists include aspects such as social responsibility, development of scientific research, and public involvement. Communication skills, the ability to learn and develop professional qualifications throughout life are perceived as necessary competencies to ensure successful medical practice. An educational institution should promote students' critical thinking and develop problem-solving skills. Also, the student must be encouraged to take responsibility for his own learning process and be prepared for life-long independent learning. This means the need to choose appropriate teaching and learning methods and methods that cover all areas - knowledge, skills, values.

The purpose of the report is to discuss the experience of developing creativity as a precondition for critical thinking in language studies at the University of Health Sciences using non-traditional activities. The following activities of the Department of Languages ​​and Education are presented in the report: video simulations "Visit to the Vet", multimedia project "I Am Talking about my World", festival "Languages Day", improvement of practical language skills by organizing excursions to Kaunas museums, travelling to Italy and France, as well as using tandem learning method. The peculiarity of these activities is that both Lithuanian and international students participate and learn together. The aim of those activities is bringing together the LSMU community, reducing the gap between Lithuanian and international students, and increasing interest in various languages and cultures of the world. It is assumed that these activities provide opportunities to develop the creativity of health science students, which corresponds to one of the assumptions of critical thinking.

Keywords: creativity, critical thinking precondition, university of health sciences, language studies, non-traditional activities.

Biographies

Presenting author. Edita Butrimė, PhD is an associate professor at the Department of Languages and Education at LSMU. Her research interests e. studies, educational aspects of communication of ICT-based biomedical studies, MOOC quality assessment possibilities research, e. studies during the pandemic and post-pandemic, blended learning. She is the co-author of an international scientific monograph and 4 educational books, a reviewer of many international scientific journal articles, gives presentations at international and national scientific conferences, supervises students' graduations. Project work experience since 2007: 2 national and 7 international projects.

Dalija Gudaitytė, PhD is a professor at the Department of Languages and Education at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS). Her research interests include liberal education in a specialized university, creating a student-friendly learning environment. She is the co-author of a textbook, 2 educational books, a monograph, and gives presentations at international and national scientific conferences. Over the past 10 years, he has published more than 20 scientific articles.

Silvija Rakutienė, PhD is an associate professor at the Department of Languages and Education at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS). Her research interests include humanities (Lithuanian literature) and social sciences. In her research in social sciences, Rakutienė analyzes the issues of developing teacher competencies, student communication and collaboration skills and raising students' learning motivation. S. Rakutienė is one of the co-authors of "History of Lithuanian Literature" (2010), the main author of 3 educational books. She gives presentations at international and national scientific conferences.