Abstract
The development of generative artificial intelligence expands opportunities for personalised learning support but also increases the risks of cognitive dependence and weakened critical thinking. This issue is particularly relevant to pre-service computer science teachers, whose future professional practice requires logically grounded reasoning, argument evaluation, and informed decision-making. This study aimed to design, develop, and experimentally evaluate an intelligent multi-agent educational platform for fostering critical thinking among pre-service computer science teachers. The methodology included analysis of scientific approaches to critical thinking development and artificial intelligence agents in teacher education, identification of pedagogical and functional requirements, platform architecture and interaction scenario design, prototype development, and a quasi-experimental study with pre- and post-testing. The developed architecture integrates an intelligent tutoring system for argumentation, role-specific artificial intelligence agents for computer science lesson simulation, an expert retrieval-augmented generation module, and an analytics dashboard. Agent operation is organised through profiling, short- and long-term memory, pedagogically constrained planning, and action modules supporting adaptive task generation, dialogue-based guidance, formative assessment, feedback, reflection, and individual progress monitoring. The platform also enables simulation of pedagogical situations aimed at developing future teachers’ professional readiness to foster school students’ critical thinking. Preliminary experimental results indicate positive changes in critical thinking performance and demonstrate the pedagogical potential of the platform. The next stage will evaluate the computer science lesson simulation mode and its contribution to professional readiness for developing school students’ critical thinking. The practical significance lies in integrating the platform into both subject-specific and pedagogical-methodological components of pre-service computer science teacher education.