INTEGRATION OF POTTERY ART INTO TEACHING THE HISTORY OF KAZAKHSTAN TO DEVELOP STUDENTS' CREATIVE THINKING

This article explores the potential of integrating pottery into the teaching of Kazakhstan's history to foster students' creative thinking. The relevance of the study stems from the need to expand practice-oriented approaches in history education, enabling the combination of historical and cultural learning with active creative and research activities. The purpose of the study is to determine the educational potential of the author's method for the step-by-step study of pottery in Kazakhstan's history lessons and to identify the observable manifestations of individual components of students' creative thinking during practical activities. The study was conducted at the Astana branch of the Republican Physics and Mathematics School of the Republic of Astana from 2019 to 2026, based on the teacher's personal observations and without any funding. The methodological framework included activity-based, competency-based, cultural, and interdisciplinary approaches. Pedagogical observation, analysis of educational and project activities, analysis of students' reflective statements, and a qualitative interpretation of the data were used. Creative thinking was assessed through independence, originality of proposed ideas, variability of solutions, the ability to refine initial concepts, and initiate their own projects.