Study of the didactic materials influence on the development of students’ dialectical thinking

Modern teachers aim to actively apply the principles of personality-oriented deve-lopmental education. In this context, information on the effectiveness of teaching materials offered by developers is of particular importance. This fact determines the relevance of empirical testing of didactic materials. To verify whether the didactic materials aimed at facilitating problem-based learning have a statistically significant impact on the development of students’ dialectical thinking on the example of a physics course at secondary school. This study is part of a larger research project investigating the didactic effectiveness of the problem-based teaching course “Physics – 7-9 form”. The project is based on the principles of personality-oriented developmental education and system approach. In this article, dissertation studies investigating a relationship between the developed didactic materials and students’ intellectual development were reviewed. Empirical data were obtained during a specifically designed pedagogical experiment. A difference in the levels of students’ dialectical thinking between the control and experimental groups was noted. The observed higher levels of dialectical thinking in the experimental groups were attributed to the use of didactic materials of problem-based learning in the course of physics at secondary school. The obtained results can encourage pedagogical research into the relationship between the content of didactic materials and the development of students’ cognitive abilities.