«The Socratic Machine»: using artificial intelligence to develop critical thinking in vocational education students

The article discusses the importance of critical thinking in modern secondary vocational education as a universal competency in understanding and analyzing ideas and arguments, evaluating ideas and arguments, as well as problem solving and decision making. The purpose of the article: to analyze the impact of accelerated automation and the development of generative artificial intelligence on the content and technology of the secondary vocational education system and to generalize the experience of developing critically thinking mid-level specialists. Main results of the study. It is shown that one of the key methods for developing critical thinking is the Socratic method. Scientific novelty of the study. A number of generalizations have been made: the Socratic approach to teaching assumes that the teacher asks a number of provocative questions aimed at identifying errors or contradictions in the thoughts of students; during this process, they not only develop logical thinking, but also achieve a deep understanding of the material being studied; However, the application of the Socratic method in large classes or groups is often difficult. Practical significance. In the context of the use of artificial intelligence in the system of secondary vocational education, the article presents the possibilities of using large language models of generative AI for teaching the Socratic method.