Questions have long been used by teachers and tutors as an instructional tool to assess students’ knowledge, improve understanding, and stimulate critical thinking. Well-thought questions lead to new ideas, spark discussion, and promote comprehensive learning about a subject. Poorly designed questions can lower performance, create confusion, intimidate students, and limit creative thinking. Teachers tend to ask lower-order convergent questions, which are based on students’ actual recall of prior knowledge, but do not ask higher-order divergent questions, which promote deep thinking and require students to analyze and evaluate concepts. The article summarizes the taxonomy (that is, the teaching of the principles and practice of classifying and systematizing complex, hierarchically related entities) of questions, suggests strategies for formulating effective questions, and explores practical considerations for increasing student engagement and developing critical thinking. Similar concepts can be applied in the classroom and in experiential learning environments. Relationship between development of critical thinking skills and targeted application of effective questioning methods in educational organizations is examined. Having carefully studied various forms of training and their obvious impact on students’ ability to think critically, we have summarized the experience of composing questions that play a significant role in the development of analytical and evaluative cognitive abilities. The study delves into the complex elements of question formulation, including factors such as complexity, relevance, and relevance to a particular situation.

The article presents the results of a study to determine the conditions for the effective involvement of older adolescents and young people in search activities as a means of their social hardening. The implementation of the program for the inclusion of minors in this socially significant activity expands the range of formed readiness to solve life tasks, problems, expands the educational potential of the extracurricular process and acts as a means capable of objectively contributing to reducing risks in the youth environment.

The article presents the results of a study on the peculiarities of the formation of a responsible attitude among young students to the handling of weapons, highlights the general theoretical foundations that determine the formative model. The proposed version of the programs included in extracurricular activities allows you to expand the possibilities of the educational potential of this component. The organization of a rich moral and legal practice acts as a means capable of helping to reduce social risks among students.

The article reveals the essence and content of the leading pedagogical ideas of the outstanding Russian classic of Soviet pedagogy A. S. Makarenko and identifies the main directions of their use in the process of professional training of future officers. The fundamental differences between teaching and upbringing, the specifics of “team pedagogy”, the critical position of A. S. Makarenko to the opponents of official pedagogy are revealed. The accentuation of methodological provisions based on the fundamental foundations of the pedagogical concept of A. S. is reflected. Makarenko and his practice-oriented achievements are presented, which are really and potentially aimed at solving the state task of educating a new person in the system of collective formation, as a means of building the future of the country and humanity.

The article discusses the possibilities and functions of laughter in overcoming such challenges of modern times as uncertainty, transitivity, complexity. The analysis of psychological, philosophical, and cultural concepts of the nature of the laughter is carried out. Examples of the image of the ambivalent nature of laughter in literature, drama and fine arts are considered.

The article discusses the method of studying symbolically mediated social understanding in individuals with social maladaptation, within the framework of the cultural historical approach. It has been developed a qualitative-quantitative experimental method of assessing social understanding in adult individuals, taking into account the use of various symbolic forms. The method comprises of 5 tasks. The pilot empirical study involved 70 adult subjects aged between 20 and 40 years old who had committed an offence. The study demonstrated significant difficulties in symbolising and understanding another person’s subjective reality compared to the control group. The study also revealed that individuals with social maladaptation tend to have a distorted understanding of the mental states of others and insufficient “sensitivity” to their symbolic manifestations. Furthermore, the study has revealed significant positive correlations between the results of fulfilling all tasks of the experimental technique.