In this article, the authors discuss the relevance of the views of the great scientist and teacher K. D. Ushinsky in our days, since the modern realities of the digitalization of society exacerbate the issue of the cultural essence and the formation of the personality of a young person. It is in the art classes in additional education, according to the authors, that the resources of folk pedagogy according to Ushinsky are applicable. Among the main directions are offered: education of youth in accordance with the national system of values and a personality-oriented approach to classes to achieve the creative development of students. As an example, the content of classes in the vocal studio of a typical institution of secondary vocational education is analyzed.

The author’s reference to Democritus’s teaching on knowledge development is explained by the need to highlight such ideas, the enduring significance of which for subsequent theories of learning is confirmed by time. It is revealed that Democritus was one of the first to identify two types of knowledge development (sensual and theoretical) and the corresponding types of knowledge. For subsequent theories of learning, the following ideas by Democritus are significant: 1) knowledge development goes in depth from sensory to theoretical knowledge; 2) knowledge developed through the senses cannot provide a stable basis for recognizing the truth; 3) knowledge developed through thought is reliable in estimating the truth and recognizing it. The most important aspects of Democritus’ thoughts are identified, which in the field of modern terminology can be called humanitarian: theoretical thinking (operating with concepts, etc.) educates a person as a thinking being; when raising a thinking student, it is necessary to take in consideration the types of knowledge development.

Without the support and development of real-life communication between the participants of the educational process, without the use of the spoken word in teaching and educating new generations, without relying on the traditional, rooted in the depth of millennia, institution of mentoring, it is very difficult to effectively solve the daunting tasks of education that face the society, the state, the individual in the rapidly changing post-industrial information society of knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic era.

The article presents some results of research aimed at studying transformations in the design component of teacher’s professional activity within the framework of flipped classroom and station rotation models of blended learning as well as correlating the identified transformations with students’ learning motivation. This paper focuses on the key changes in the educational process caused by the use of the indicated blended learning models and students’ attitude toward them. The author has found a positive effect on students’ learning motivation within flipped classroom and station rotation models.

The article discusses the possibility of using students’ own questions to enhance their cognitive activity and increase their intellectual independence. Based on modern logic and methodology, the authors argue that the ability to independently raise and improve questions is a necessary condition for both thinking and learning activities. At the same time, the modern school not only does not teach to raise questions, but also excludes situations where students could do this. The article gives an overview of the modern world experience of integrating students’ own questions into the educational process. The authors describe the methods they developed for organizing students’ questions, aimed at understanding and writing texts on the content of academic subjects.