Николић, Ивко Пелемиш, Владан Негру, Маринел Михајловић, Бошко eng Abstract: In modern society, change is very fast and difficult to manage. Students should be prepared for present and future needs. Therefore, the school must change and adapt to modern needs, and the theoretical level of teachers should be raised to the level of critical analysis of possible and best solutions. The concept of school and work in it must be theoretically grounded. Which theory and which concept of teaching and school organization best suits modern needs? A well-didactically educated teacher will use several theories at the same time, depending on the nature of the material, set goals and tasks, so that there is no universal answer. In this paper, we will look at the importance of critical theories because they point out the importance of autonomy and self-determination of students, their emancipatory demands, critical attitude towards social reality, emphasizing solidarity draw attention to current problems in education. In practice, behavioral, cognitive, constructivist, humanistic theories of learning, etc. are also significantly blunted. https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:28541 doi:10.24250/jpe/1/2022/IN/VP/MN ISSN: 1842-077X info:eu-repo/semantics/article All rights reserved application/pdf 817393 bytes Faculty of Educational Sciences, Psychology and Social Work, "Aurel Vlaicu" University, Arad Theoretical approach to a rapidly changing school - critical theories 2022 Journal plus education XXX(1) Key words: Learning theories; Critical-communicative theory; Constructivist theory.