Taking care of the development of students, it is necessary to use active teaching methods more often. But at the same time, it is necessary to be aware of whether the techniques and methods used are optimal, corresponding to the existing development of students and the task of further improving their cognitive skills.

Applying certain methods and techniques of activation, it is always necessary to take into account the existing level of development of students' cognitive abilities. Complex cognitive tasks can be presented only to students with a high level of development of cognitive abilities. Tasks that are not correlated with the level of development of the student's cognitive forces, exceeding his capabilities, making demands on him that are significantly ahead of the level of his existing development, cannot play a positive role in learning. They undermine the student's faith in their own strengths and abilities.

The system of the teacher's work to enhance the educational activities of schoolchildren should be built taking into account the planned, gradual and purposeful achievement of the desired goal - the development of cognitive creative abilities of students.

Any human activity (not only cognitive) consists of separate actions, and the actions themselves can be decomposed into separate operations.

A student in the process of cognitive activity performs separate actions: he listens to the teacher's explanation, reads a textbook and additional literature, solves problems, performs experimental tasks, etc. Each of these actions can be decomposed into separate mental processes: sensation, perception, representation, thinking, memory, imagination, etc.

Among all cognitive mental processes, thinking is the leading one. Indeed, thinking accompanies all other cognitive processes and often determines their nature and quality. The connection between thinking and memory is obvious, for example. The more fully and better the memory retains the essential properties of objects and the connection between them, the deeper they are comprehended in the process of study. But thinking also affects all other cognitive processes.

Consequently, to activate the cognitive activity of students means, first of all, to activate their thinking.

In addition, developing the cognitive abilities of students means forming their motives for learning. Students should not only learn to solve cognitive problems, they need to develop a desire to solve these problems. Fostering students' motives for learning is currently one of the main tasks of the school.

The task of forming students' motives for learning is inextricably linked with the task of developing thinking and is a prerequisite for its solution. Indeed, like any other activity, thinking is caused by needs. Therefore, without educating, without awakening the cognitive needs of students, it is impossible to develop their thinking.

So, the techniques and methods of students 'cognitive activity in teaching used by the teacher should provide for the gradual, purposeful and planned development of students' thinking and the simultaneous formation of their motives for learning.

Techniques and methods for enhancing the cognitive activity of students

Each of the methods of organizing educational and cognitive activity has not only an informative teaching, but also a motivational effect. In this sense, we can talk about the stimulating and motivational function of any teaching method. However, the experience of teachers and science has accumulated a large arsenal of methods that are specifically aimed at forming positive motives for learning, they stimulate cognitive activity, while simultaneously contributing to the enrichment of schoolchildren with educational information. The function of stimulation in this case, as it were, comes to the fore, contributing to the implementation of the educational function of all other methods.