Abstract
The study focuses on assessing the possible effectiveness of the program used to teach media competence of student teachers. The study contributes to the investigation over the types of students' motivation to develop their critical thinking skills. At the same time, this research evaluates the degree of influence of teacher students' media competence on the formation process of a springboard for critical thinking development. The research was carried out on the basis of the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University and in parallel at Teraz Pedagogical University. Data collection was done through a media consumption literacy poll and by using Lukyanova’s methodology for motivation assessment named “Fight against cyber extremism”. The results indicate the presence of a significant increase in the level of motivation and academic achievement in the field of media competence in the group that applied the training program proposed by the authors in training. A high level of motivation to learn was observed in the experimental group, 13.6%, and in the control group, 12.5%; 11.2% of participants in the experimental group showed a higher cognitive level (10.2% in the control group); higher academic achievements - 10.5% in the experimental group and 9.5% in the control group. Keywords: critical thinking, Internet, media competence, media education, psychological and pedagogical conditions.