Critical thinking as the basic mechanism of the intellectual potential of society in conditions of modern science and education

The article is an attempt to consider the competence-based approach in education in terms of the problem of the need to form critical thinking among students of modern Russian universities. The paper also substantiates the key role of reflexive abilities in the processes of motivation, generation and assimilation of innovations in the conditions of the formation of a knowledge society. In practical terms, the main directions of the formation of critical thinking of the individual and related reflexive processes are associated with the development of new technologies for management systems for subjects of activity, with the change of the dominant of “knowledge aggregation” in education to the dominant of the development of reflexive abilities that can ensure the implementation of robust strategies for inter- and transdisciplinary integration and cooperation of various fields of scientific knowledge and educational systems.