The Bologna Declaration (1999), the Croatian Qualification Framework (Ministry of Science, Education and Sport of the Republic of Croatia, 2013), the Education, Science and Technology Strategy (Government of the Republic of Croatia, 2014), and the National Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Science, Education and Sports , 2016) are the strategic documents of the European Union and the Government of the Republic of Croatia that promote the importance of education reform in the direction of acquiring learning-based competencies. In this research, the design of the learning environment has been suggested, which encourages the acquisition of competences mentioned in the previous documents, such as problem solving, teamwork, digital and information literacy, and critical and analytical thinking. This research considers the development of student critical thinking and ability to solve problems in emerging situations through the participation of students in the process of assessment of knowledge and the use of ICT in teaching. The research is divided into a theoretical and empirical part. In the theoretical part of the study, a review of the relevant literature is provided, while the empirical part of the research includes: (i) research into the current state of knowledge of teachers and teachers in practice in the Republic of Croatia on the application of information communication technology in teaching; (ii) extension and validation of the RASI (Revised Approach to Study Inventory) in the context of complex and problematic tasks, (iii) validation of the Survey of Preserving Teachers' Knowledge of Teaching and Technology (SPTKTT) questionnaire in the context of the Croatian educational system, (iv) a experiment with factor design investigating the influence of participation in Peer criterion assessments and / or self-assessment of a problem-solving and / or complex task in the context of online collaborative learning on the perception of future teachers and teachers on the progress of their knowledge on the application of technology in teaching, as well as the impact of these processes on the development of deep approaches to learning in the observed context. The data obtained were analyzed with the help of statistical data processing software Statistica 13, SPSS 24 and Structural Programming Lisrel 9.1. The results of the research showed that: (i) teachers in the Republic of Croatia perceived lesser own knowledge about the application of technology in teaching in regards to own pedagogical and content knowledge; (ii) the extended RASI questionnaire corresponds to the proposed theoretical model and is suitable for use in the context of complex and problematic tasks; (iii) the SPTKTT questionnaire corresponds to the proposed theoretical model and is suitable for use in the context of the Croatian education system; and (iv) the impact of none of the observed variables is statistically significant in the move towards a deep approach to learning; there is no correlation between the learning approach that a student normally applies and the quasi-reliability of student assessment; independent variable Time has a statistically significant impact on the perception of future teachers on the progress of their knowledge on applying technology to teaching, but the impact is not additionally explained by any variables observed in this research.